The Pike: Ships In The Night (13 page)

She sat on one of the two stools sitting on a thick rubber mat in front of the workbench, and I sort of gravitated beside her, hung my cane from my waistband, and rested my hand on her shoulder as I stared intently into her deep brown eyes.

She shrugged and explained, “It is one of the things daddy has me do with him.  He says I have to balance activities in the physical world with my intellectual pursuits.  So we have our project car here, and he has me ride bicycles, and a couple other things.”

Huh.  That was sort of ingenious of the man.  I could see her getting so lost in her math that she wouldn't interact with the real world unless it were absolutely required.

Lili offered as she sat on the other stool with her own glass of the tart nectar, Vince moving behind her to be a large warm backrest for her, “The two of them have been working on this bucket of bolts since Liya was twelve.  A never-ending project.”

Vince kissed the top of her head, and she tilted her head back to trade smiles with him.  They were amazing together.  The giant gentle man and the tiny delicate woman.  There was no doubt, each time they looked at each other, that they were still deeply in love after around twenty-five years of marriage.

He smirked and said, “Never say never, Lil.  That alternator was the final piece.  I never thought I'd say it, but we're done.  All that is left is to see if it will run.”

He reached a hand over and took a keyring with a couple keys off a peg and tossed them.  Liya caught them with both hands, fumbling them awkwardly and almost dropping them before getting control of them.  She looked at her father with wide eyes, and he winked at her and nudged his chin toward the car.

He hit a button on the wall beside him as she looked at me with a bewildered smile and hopped off the stool to go to the car.  With a protesting moan and squeak the old segmented wood garage door creaked up.  Liya carefully pulled down the hood and latched it then slid into the driver's seat.

Lili explained, “When Vince's dad passed, he left this monstrosity to him and my Liya, with the stipulation that they restore it together to how it was when he bought it new in nineteen seventy.”

Vince added, “It was barely more than a rusted out hulk when we got it.  I taught Imme how to do bodywork, and we sourced parts as we could afford them.  We traded labor for Dupree's Upholstery to repair the ragtop and seats.  She traded accounting work to Frye's in exchange for the professional paint job.  Easiest thirty minutes of her life.”

He added, “We've been trying to source an original alternator for almost a year now.  Imme insists on factory parts where possible.”

He smiled at his daughter with pride as she was adjusting the seat as far forward as it could go, she could barely see over the steering wheel.  “She's actually quite the grease monkey.”

Then Liya looked back through the windows to us.  She looked a little nervous then turned back and put the key in and twisted.  With a growl, the monster came to life.  Thrumming that deep rumble only a car of its era could produce.  The ground vibrated with the power translating through the vehicle and into the ground from its tires.  Dust drifted down from the rafters as the garage vibrated.

Lili covered her ears, and Vince just grinned and pulled her protectively into him as Liya goosed the throttle a couple times.  The throaty roar was almost deafening in the closed space.  The torque of the motor made the body flex, and the car side hopped an inch or two.

It was a thing of beauty, and it made every nerve in my body tingle with a primal urge to match that animalistic power.  A need to prowl the roads, on a hunt for power and speed.  It was an apex predator of the blacktop.  I felt myself grinning like a fool.

She shut it off and the silence that suddenly filled the void where the wall of sound had been, was almost deafening.  We all smiled at her as the normally controlled girl slid out of the car with a smile plastered on her face, she was almost visibly vibrating with excitement.

She held the keys out to her father and blurted, “It works!  We did it!”

He made no move to take the keys from her and said, “She's yours baby.  Always has been.”

She just stood there blinking at the man, I could imagine the gears turning in her head as she processed what the man had just said.  Then she was diving on the man and embracing him in a desperate hug.

Lili slipped off her stool and gathered our glasses as she said, “Don't you have someplace to go soon, my Liya?”

The girl paused and blushed as she released her father and said, “Yes mom.”  In a bold move for her, most likely because of the adrenaline from starting the car up, she reached out and took my hand.  She looked at her feet in her bashful manner.  I laced our fingers and gave a little squeeze as if to say, “I am here.”

She visibly relaxed as we followed Lili out the side door.  Vince hit the garage door button and the old twist style light switch, then followed us all.  He overtook us as Liya was asking me excitedly, “Did you see?  It runs!  Of course, you saw, you were there.  To state otherwise would be analogous to...”

She paused when Vince chuckled.  I just nodded and couldn't stop smiling.  Her enthusiasm had eclipsed her Vulcan-like, controlled exterior, and I wondered how long before she got control of herself again.  But I understood as I was still buzzing with my own adrenaline from being that close to that much Detroit steel when it came to life.

Vince opened the kitchen door for us to file in.  The inside of the house matched the exterior.  Old but well maintained.  It had one of those old sixties looking kitchens.  All metal and Formica.  There was a small kitchen table that currently had a chess set on it.

Liya gave me a shy smile and said, “I'll be right back.  Let me get cleaned up.”

I nodded, and she let go of my hand.  I instantly missed the contact.  She was something different, something I was missing in my life as much as I missed helping people and fighting the flames back.  A connection.  She looked back once, and I got the impression she was echoing my, “I am here.”

I turned, and my smile disappeared when I saw the Hannigan's looking at me intently like they never had before.  Vince's arms were crossed in front of him, and even in his coveralls, you could see the muscles in his arms bulging.

I swallowed, and he asked in a pantomime of every cliché from every teen movie, “So... Allison, what are your intentions with our daughter?”

I swallowed again and asked, “Ummm... a date?”  I was suddenly acutely aware that I had no clue if Imme's parents approved of my sexuality.  I just assumed they knew since it was dragged through every news report after the accident like it was something to put on display for public entertainment.

I had been so humiliated and embarrassed that my sex life was apparently something to be put in the spotlight.  When was the last time you had a headline, “Straight man in car accident on I90.”  Never.  So why did the news think it was ok to point out to the world that I was a “gay firefighter”?  I was a firefighter, period.

The Hannigans had recognized my name so I assumed they knew.  Were they just ok with me being her friend and nothing more?

He exhaled and said, “Obviously, but beyond that.  Ligaya doesn't process things like other people, she's... special.”

I smiled. “No she doesn't, and yes she is.  That's why I'm going glacially slow with my interactions with her.  I don't want to scare her off or confuse her.  I don't know where this is going, if anywhere.  All I know is that I can't stop smiling when she's around, and I haven't had anything to smile about for about over a year.”  I tapped the cane on the ground to illustrate.

Lili said as she glanced at her husband then me, “We're just not really comfortable with her... dating.”

They were laying their cards on the table, wanting my honesty, so I thought it was only fair if we all did.  I just came out and asked,  “Is it because I'm gay?”

Vince actually tipped his head back and laughed heartily.  Lili backhanded his gut with a smirk.  He regained his wits and said, “What's that got to do with anything?  We're happy our daughter has shown an interest in anyone, we never thought it would happen.  We couldn't care less if you were a three headed alien from Alpha Centauri.  But she's fragile.  That armor of logic and structure she wears can be cracked with the slightest effort, and shattered when she can't understand her emotions.”

Then I looked at the intense scrutiny Lili had me under and sighed.  “I can't promise anything to anyone when it comes to the future, except to promise that I would never intentionally hurt that girl.  I know that I look forward to seeing her each day on the ferry, and I love spending time with her at the restaurant.”

“I rode my bike for the first time since...”  I looked at my cane and exhaled in exasperation before finishing the lame statement. “Because I didn't want her to think less of me for bringing her to the barbecue on the bus or a taxi.”

I met Vince's eyes and said, “I usually don't give a damn what people think of me, but I actually care what she thinks of me, a lot, and that scares me.”

I realized I was speaking to myself.  “She doesn't see my injuries, she looks through it all and just sees me.  I will actually make a selfish promise.  I promise I'll do my damnedest to make her smile as often as possible, because when I can coax that smile, I feel like I have accomplished something, and I feel proud that I could bring it about.”

Lili looked at Vince, and they shared a look.  He shrugged and said offhandedly, “You'll do.”  Then he winked at me.

I relaxed a little, realizing that their opinions mattered to me as well, and that I was shaking a bit.

Then he joked, “Next time we'll do this with me disassembling my shotgun on the couch.”  He gave a super cheesy toothy grin that I could tell was the template for Imme's grin.

We all turned at Liya's voice as she wandered in wearing a fluffy bathrobe and drying her long, obsidian black hair, with a towel.  I observed that when it was wet, it was almost tightly curled instead of the loose waves it flowed in when it was dry.  Her glasses were off, and she was squinting at us as she said, “You don't have a shotgun daddy.  What is the significance of disassembling an imaginary shotgun when guests visit?”

We all burst out laughing.  She looked around at us, but I could see she was confused at what she had said to elicit that response, but she wound up smiling at us all, catching the spirit.  She turned to me as she draped the towel over her shoulder.  “I just wanted to relay to you that I will be out in approximately five minutes, Allie.”  She blushed, and I nodded at her.

She turned and started back out of the kitchen and paused at the table and placed her finger on the top of a white bishop on the chessboard.  She squinted at it then looked back at her father who just grinned and shrugged.

She took the knight in the adjacent space.  There were five white pieces and only two black left.  A pawn and the king.  She looked smug then almost skipped off to get ready.  Vince waited until she left then stepped away from his wife and reached out and moved his pawn on space and exhaled heavily.

I blinked.  The man was playing against a super genius?  I looked at him then the board.  He shrugged at me with mischief in his expression.  Then he explained, “Another thing to get her out of her head and into the physical world with the rest of us.”

I grinned.  So getting his butt handed to him by a girl who could outthink a computer was another way he interacted with her.  I understood more and more about their family.  It was things like this that allowed them to interact with a daughter who lived in a different world than us mere mortals.

We all sat at the table and gossiped about Imme's younger years.  How she was reading at two and already doing advanced trig at four.  I was amazed that for every intellectual accomplishment, they shared a memory of her other firsts, like her first experience on a swing.  Each moment that made them proud had another moment that included eliciting a smile from her or another emotional response.  They were learning right along with her.

I turned at the sound of footsteps, and Liya came into the kitchen looking cute as ever, here big brown eyes magnified by her glasses.  She waved at me from her hip, looking like she was uncertain of what she was supposed to do.

She glanced at the chessboard and paused, her smile faltering as she creased her brow.  She moved beside me and just stared at the board.  Her eyes flicked all over, and I could see her thinking intensely. She finally just exhaled heavily in exasperation, reached over to the white king and laid it down.

She shook her head at her father with a resigned grin.  He shrugged far too innocently, and I almost blurted out in confusion, “Wait.  What just happened?”

She looked at me as I hopped off my chair and ushered her into it.  I rested a hand on her shoulder, and she laid her head cutely on it as she said, “I was five moves away from having daddy in checkmate.  But he somehow changed the parameters of the game and would have me in checkmate in four.”

I looked between the two incredulously.  He beat her?  Lili chuckled at my surprise.  “She has never beat Vince since he introduced her to the game when she was three.”

Imme looked up at me with a little bit of exasperation on her face as she said, “He doesn't play logically, and throws me off by making moves that make no sense in the strategy of the game.  It is frustrating trying to figure out what he thinks when he makes an obvious miscalculation.  Maybe Maggie can figure out his strategy for me when she is fully operational.”

I had to grin.  Fighting logic with illogic.  It had to be confounding to her.  I teased Vince, “Most fathers would let their child win every once in a while.”

He shook his head as he reached out to take his daughter's tiny hand in his huge paw. “No.  She'll beat me when she's ready.  She still has things to learn.  That will be the day she knows she earned the win.”

She was nodding and smiling as she deftly set the game up again.  She moved out a pawn then looked at me.  “I'm ready.”

I shook my head. “You'll need a jacket.  It's a little nippy.  Fall is making herself known.”

She stood, and I took the hand she offered as she scrunched up her face in confusion. “Fall is not a person.  Just a season which culminates with the Autumnal Equinox when the Earth's tilt in its orbit absorbs less solar radiation from...”

I gave her a silly look and interrupted.  “Jacket.”

She sighed then grinned as she looked down as she nodded.  Her bashfulness was almost like a drug to me.  She asked as she led me to a bedroom, “Want to hear a joke daddy told me?”

I nodded and squinted an eye, anticipating something terrible like her other jokes.  She provided, “A neutron walked into a bar and asked, 'How much for a beer?' The bartender smiled and replied, 'For you, no charge.'”

Then she started giggling like a chipmunk on speed.  I had to chuckle, and I heard her father snort from the kitchen.  She explained excitedly as she went to a closet to retrieve a jacket, “It is funny not just because neutrons can neither walk nor speak, but because the bartender said no charge, and neutrons hold no electric charge.”

I had to grin at her enthusiasm.  She seemed so childlike at times and so ferociously intelligent at others.  I replied, “I got it.”  I winked at her then glanced around the spartan and meticulously organized room.

There didn't seem to be any personal effects.  It was very utilitarian with a bed, nightstand, and dresser.  There was a small desk on the far wall by the closet that was so well organized it looked like it was a prop set straight out of a catalog.  There was a long shelf on the wall above the desk that held dozens of books, all science, and physics related.  Even her bed was made with almost military precision.

She looked up at me in question.  I exhaled with a smile then kissed the top of her head and led her out by the hand.  “Let's get going.  It will take us a couple hours to get there.”

We stepped into the living room to see Lili looking out the window with Vince as she pointed at my bike.  They were in a whispered conversation.  They turned to us when we stepped out of Liya's room.  Vince said, “Ummm... you're not taking Imme on that two wheeled death machine.”

I started to protest, but he looked at his daughter and said, “Take the Chevy.”  Oooo... I could swallow my protest for that.

I could almost feel the excitement in her that she reigned it in under her veneer of calm.  But you could still hear the excitement in her tone as she asked, “Really?”

He chuckled. “Of course.  She's your car.”

She paused and looked at me and explained, “He insists on giving machines gender.”

I cocked an eyebrow and teased her, “Oh really?  And what about you and Maggie?”

She looked down trying to hide a smile as she said in an almost whine, “Shut up, it's pretty.”  That caught both her parents by surprise, and they both smiled widely at her playfulness.

I looked at them as she physically dragged me, limping behind her, to the kitchen.  She paused long enough to look at the chess board which now had the black knight on play.  She moved her bishop quickly then pulled me out the door toward the garage.  I felt like a teen again, escaping from a friend's parents before we got embarrassed.

We looked back as we entered the garage to see her parents standing in the doorway of the house.  Vince waved and said, “Have fun storming the castle,” in a great Billy Crystal impression.

Lili backhanded his gut and reprimanded, “Vince.”

Liya opened the garage door then grabbed the keys off the peg with almost childlike glee.  I was going to offer to drive, but she let go of me and slipped into the driver's seat.  I thought to myself, “Ok, this could be interesting.”

We sat in the show-car, and I just admired the work they had done to it.  It looked like it had just rolled off the showroom floor.  She started the monster, and it rumbled to life as she started backing us out.  She could barely see over the back seat as she backed us so painfully slowly into the street.

Dear Lord, she was going to embarrass the spirit of the muscle car gods.  She put it in gear and waved at her parents.  I waved too then said, “The ferry.”  Then I asked in concern as we buckled our old style lap belts, “Do you want me to drive?  Can you handle this beast?”

I could almost hear the “Challenge accepted,” in the wicked smile I got from her.  It made me grin that she could still surprise me with some of her reactions.

As the ton and a half of prime Detroit steel idled, I'm embarrassed to say that ‘Bad To The Bone’ was playing in my head.  Dun da dun na dun dun.

The next moment I was plastered back in my seat as she stomped the gas and the beast roared out its own challenge, tires screeching as we rocketed forward, the back end fishtailing slightly before the rubber bit.  Then we were screaming down the road with a giggling Imme at the wheel.  Dear lord, we were going to die.

I was grinning like a fool by the time we reached the docks.  Not only could the girl, who could barely see over the dashboard, drive the Chevy, but she drove it well.  The power and speed seemed to thrill her as much as it did me on our short drive to the docks with the radio blaring.

We shut the radio off as we moved into the line of cars awaiting the Hyak as it slid into port.  I said to her, “To tell you the truth, I'm a little surprised you have a license.  You are always so caught up in your work I'd have thought you didn't have time.”

She shook her head. “It is one of the exercises in life skills that my parents say is required to properly assimilate into the general populace.”  Then she smiled shyly and looked at her hands on the wheel.  “Besides, I'm not adverse to the release of endorphins associated with...”