The Crooked Mechanics

By Darrin Atkins

"The Crooked Mechanics" rip off so many customers in their mechanic shop that, when the authorities close in, they pack up and escape across country in a truck. They finally end up in St. Louis and their last chance to escape in a plane fails miserably near the Gateway Arch.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 9, 2000
• ISBN: 9781469102368

Darrin Atkins

Darrin Atkins was raised in Stockton, California. He graduated from the University of the Pacific in 1993 and then studied in a Ph.D. Program in Social Psychology at the University of Nevada. He has worked at Premiere magazine, Nevada magazine, the Reno Gazette-Journal, Investor’s Business Daily and The Record. “You Always Lose” is his fourth book.

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Copyright © 1999 by Darrin Atkins.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any

form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording,

or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing

from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the

product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to

any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-7-XLIBRIS

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

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1      

It was a beautiful day. Elizabeth, a young attractive nurse, sat behind a large wooden desk in a small hospital in Northern California as she filled out a report. Pete, an orderly in his early thirties with thinning hair, composed himself, straightened his white shirt and pants and made sure his remaining hair was in place, then approached the desk to speak to her.

Good morning, he said as he smiled.

Hi, she replied, though she didn’t look up. She was busy and had not yet made a decision to what he had asked her before.

That offer still stands, he said.

Okay.

We can go anywhere you like.

I’ll have to think about it, she said stubbornly.

Louise, a nurse a few years older than Elizabeth, with short dark curly hair, approached the desk to join them. You bothering her again, Pete? she asked.

‘Course not. We were just talking. He touched Elizabeth on the hand. Just think about it.

How come you’re an orderly? asked Louise. That’s not exactly a career position.

Well, I used to be a mechanic. In fact, I owned my own shop but that didn’t work out. He paused for a second. I better get back to work.

Elizabeth and Louise watched Pete as he walked away. Once he was out of hearing range, Louise turned to Elizabeth. Did he ask you out again?

Yeah.

You’re not thinking about it, are you?

I don’t know. He seems all right.

I wouldn’t if I were you.

Why is that? asked Elizabeth.

Any number of reasons.

Pete walked down a hallway in the hospital as he thought about Elizabeth, then he stopped when he spotted a vase of carnations. He slyly picked out a nice, pretty pink one that was just starting to bud and then he meandered back to the other hallway where he had talked to the nurses. He saw Elizabeth’s desk about fifty feet away and walked quietly so he could surprise her. He carried the carnation carefully and with pride though he hadn’t purchased it himself and had actually stolen it. As he approached the desk still unseen, he overheard the end of their conversation.

Pete has already been divorced, said Louise. Who’s to say he won’t divorce you a year from now? And he’s got two children.

Who said I was gonna marry him? argued Elizabeth. She didn’t like it when people interfered with her life or tried to convince her to do something she didn’t want to do. She got enough of that from other people.

Another thing, continued Louise. You know about his trouble with the law. Everybody in the hospital knows about his past.

I’m aware of that. People make mistakes sometimes.

You can do what you want, but my advice is for you not to get involved with him.

Thanks, said Elizabeth who wanted to change the subject. Let’s get back to work.

Pete quickly turned around and silently headed the other direction. His facial expression changed from bright and cheery to sad and gloomy. He heard them move away from the desk and start toward where he was so he stepped into an empty room to hide. He listened some more as the two passed by in the hallway just outside the room.

Elizabeth, I’m just looking out for you.

I know you are. Thanks.

Pete walked across the room and sat down in a chair near a window. The words and comments by Louise had had an effect on him. He looked down at the carnation and then outside and into the sky. He should have made better decisions with his life and he should have been more careful. But now he had to live with his past and do the best he could.

2      

Pete stared through the window at the sky and thought about what had happened five years earlier and how things could have turned out differently. Things had happened unexpectedly and quickly, and there was nothing he could do about his past except think about it and learn from it. He remembered the beginning when he was outside a government building in Oxnard, California, a small coastal city just north of Los Angeles. He remembered that he had been watching the sky then too. He had been waiting for his friend Kurt and a plane had zipped across the clear blue sky.

Come on Pete, interrupted Kurt. Pete stopped watching the plane and glanced at his friend Kurt, a chubby, self-confident, charming man who only had been in America a few years. He still had a strong Polish accent.

Let’s go, prodded Kurt. Pete caught up with him and the two entered the courthouse. He said his office is on the second floor, room 208, said Kurt. They stomped