Five Dollar Wrench

Checking Out

It felt so good being able to check in with Claire after a job. It's easier to get a proper perspective by bouncing ideas off someone you trust.

She was my first call after the Third Reich roundup in Austin.

"Hey, Claire!"

"Shay, how ya' doin'?"

"Oh, not bad."

"Where are you?"

"I'm in Texas. I can't wait to get out of here."

"Oh?"

"I spent the afternoon in a parking lot. The AC in my van crapped out, and a couple of my guys got rounded up by the cops."

"A couple?"

"I think four."

"How many guys did you have?"

"I had four."

"Oh, Shay. One of these days, you're gonna get burned."

"I'm not worried about it. It wasn't my van, and those baldies thought I was a dude named Wolf who just so happens to have a little mustache. Please don't dwell on that last part."

"Ohhh kaaay... So... how's the weather?"

"Too hot for a trench coat. New subject. What's new with you?"

"Nothing I say can measure up to that. Wow, Shay."

"Seriously, what's going on in your world?"

"Oh, not much. I'm finally learning to cook. My grocery lists are real groceries these days."

"Claire, are you going straight?"

"I'm just working on my long term plan."

"Which is?"

"Living a happy and fulfilled life."

"Huh."

"What?"

"I still talk through ideas with you though, right?"

"Absolutely, Shay!"

"Good!"

"Got any ideas you want to talk about?"

"Well, I'm thinking about what I might do after the valet parking thing runs its course. My next move might be to start up a dating service called BABIO. The dating service would be real, and free, but I'd use the sign up list to hunt high quality marks."

"Babio?"

"Berry Anonymous, By Invitation Only."

"There's the Shay I know and love."

"Aww, thanks. Anyway, it's an idea I'm working on. What about you? Got anything good in the works?"

"Oh, not really. My garden is coming along. It's just getting started, but I'm already thinking about planting flowers to make it pretty next year. Maybe some Forget-Me-Nots. Snapdragons too. It's always good to add some color."

"You're really settling in there, huh?"

"Playing the long game, Shay."

"What does that mean though?"

"Life is the real long game. So, you have to ask yourself, 'What am I doing this for? What kind of life do I want to live?'"

"I don't think about that stuff."

"Maybe you should. You know the old saying, nobody makes it out alive. I guess that makes life the only game that matters."

"Maybe I'll think about it, once I've got enough."

"How much is enough though?"

"I don't know. Is there ever enough?"

"Enough is when your heart is full."

"Wow, Claire. That's..."

"Deep?"

"Yeah."

I was gonna say lame.

"Shay, there is something I wanted to talk to you about."

"What's that?"

"Would it bother you if I got a job at The Shady Lady Exchange? I know you used to work there. They seem cool. I figure, a couple days a week there, a few nights at The Bitter End. It adds up."

"That's fine, but don't mention me. They don't know me as Shay, OK? That's sort of where the name comes from."

"Yeah, I figured. You never told me how you started working there. Come to think of it, you never said how you started any of this."

"It's a long story."

"I've got time."

"Really?"

"Pour yourself a drink or two. I'm about to throw a pie in the oven. It's gonna take an hour, plus at least another hour to cool before I can put it in the fridge. So yeah, I've got time. Tell me the story."

I told her about the day I handed Linda a pie, and why the shock of seeing a young-ish woman in a grandma house scared me so bad. How it made me worry I'd end up like her if I stayed in that small town.

Claire told me about planting a seed. Killing a weed. Tilling soil, sowing something... It was so great to hear her voice.

I told her about sending a burglar down the stairs at the Boxtan Inn, and how that got me my first connections.

She told me something about Ralph Walter Emerson, I think? It was a quote. "Every end is a new beginning." She really was starting over.

I told her how the fear of having nothing and being nothing was what got me headed down this path.

This road.

Sometimes, I wished it was a train track.

Claire once said, "Trains are on rails, Shay. They can't get lost."

I don't think I'm lost, but I don't know where I'm going.

That same day, she also said, "It's time to bring this train into the station."

Maybe she was right.

About that.

And about the Life thing, too.

I thought, "Maybe ten million dollars would be the point where the money is enough. Maybe that could be the endgame."

Editor's Note:

"Every end is a new beginning" is a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson. Waldo, not Walter. It appears in his essay "Circles." The full quote is "There is no end in nature, but every end is a new beginning." This reflects a cyclical philosophy where endings are not final, but rather transitions to new phases.