LIFERS Chapter Thirty Four

The alley that seperated the garage from cinema was nothing short of a quagmire as vehicles had used it for a cut-through and carved out two deep furrows, and both had flooded with rainwater. Ten metres along the furrows was a bright-yellow tow truck; itself half-wheel-deep in the muddy water.

Nick walked along the garage side to look for the junction box and Jill walked down the cinema side where she climbed up to the driver’s door and tried to open it. She noticed the cab’s interior was unusually tidy compared to everything else she’d seen in Martinsville, so tidy in fact, it looked almost new. She jumped down again and had to shout to be heard above the storm.

‘Just our luck,’ she said. ‘It’s locked.’

‘Yeah, I figured it would be.’

As they reached the back corner of the garage, Nick pointed to a small wooden box about fifteen feet from the ground. The front of the box had a loose piece of tarp draped over it which the wind caught and blew aside every few seconds. Jill walked backward toward the cinema to get a better look. Inside the box was a smaller, square-shaped object around the same size as the junction switch for the shutter.

‘I think that’s it, Nick, but how do we reach it?’

‘I’ll go see if there’s anything round back we could use for a ladder,’ he said.

A minute later Nick returned with what looked like a shiny six-foot-length of iron scaffolding pole.

‘This is all I could find,’ he shouted.

Even with the pole outstretched at arm’s length and them standing on their tip-toes, Jill could see that neither of them would be tall enough to make it reach the box.

‘And what would you like me to do with it, Nick, dance around it naked for you?’

For the slightest of moments Nick stared into space and Jill swore she could see the images of herself wrapped around the pole reflected onto his lenses.

‘Nick?’

He blinked. ‘Er, actually, no,’ he said. ‘You have to climb onto my shoulders and push the switch with it.’

Her jaw dropped. ‘Are you kidding me?’

‘No, come on I’m serious, climb up me, I can take it.’

This could only end in disaster, with her, or perhaps both of them, coming out of it with a broken limb; she thought dancing around the pole naked for him sounded a much better idea.

‘Okay,’ she said, with some reluctance. ‘But you lean back against that wall and don’t you dare move, Nick.’

With the pole stood next to him and his back pressed hard against the tin wall as Jill insisted, Nick interlocked his fingers and she began to climb up his front. And like young teens on their first groping session, they struggled, they grunted, and they apologised for misplaced hands, but eventually they managed it. Nick lifted the pole and passed it to Jill then gripped her ankles.

Jill steadied herself with one hand on the garage wall as she poked and prodded under the tarp, but the angle was all wrong. She was too close to the wall and couldn’t see the switch in order to work it.

‘Nick, you’re gonna have to move away from the wall a couple of feet, okay?’

‘Say, what?’

‘I said; move out a bit, just a couple more feet.’

‘But you just told me not to move.’

‘I know, but now you have to.’

She felt Nick grip her ankles tighter just before he shunted himself forward a couple of steps.

‘How’s that?’ he said.

‘No, go out a little more.’

Nick took one more step which left him and Jill on the very precipice of the first flooded furrow. And with fifty to sixty mile an hour gusts of wind buffeting into them, they both found it very difficult to keep still. Jill had the pole inside the box ready for one of those gusts to blow the tarp out the way, but as Nick didn’t have anything to lean against, he started to wobble back and forth, which made Jill look unhinged at the hip.

‘Jesus Christ, Nick. Would you stand still?’

‘Say, what?’

‘Stop dancing around,’ she shouted.

‘It’s not me, it’s this damn wind.’

‘Well can’t you open your legs a little to lower your centre of gravity?’

‘But I’ve already got the lowest centre of gravity of anyone I know.’

‘Just do it, Nick,’ she screamed.

Nick did and Jill felt the drop, only two or three inches but the swaying seemed to have settled, so when the tarp moved again, Jill saw that she had the end of the pole on the switch and stabbed at it, and there was a definite clunk sound.

‘Okay, I think I got it,’ she shouted, then dropped the pole.

Nick instinctively turned to his left when he heard the pole’s bell-like clang right beside him. His glasses flew from his face and he lost all sense of balance and stammered sideways. Jill refused to be toppled by this unexpected motion, so she kicked her legs forward and landed on his shoulders. The make-shift poncho flicked over her head and Nick’s face ended up buried deep in her crotch.

Unable to see anything, Jill gripped his hair with one hand and allowed the other to flail around like a Texan cowboy’s on his first bull. Also unable to see, Nick screamed and his falsetto resonance tunnelled into Jill and caused her to grip his hair with both hands to push his head away, and that’s when both of them toppled into the nearest flooded furrow.

Nick sat up and fingered about the puddle for his glasses. ‘Well,’ he said. ‘If we weren’t wet before we damn well are now.’

Jill rose; she coughed-out muddy water but was more concerned with whether or not they’d succeeded in their task. And besides, she was used to being wet; she’d been that way almost since the rain started.

‘Come on,’ she said, helping Nick to his feet. ‘Let’s go see if it’s worked.’

Jill led the way past the tow truck and around the front of the garage where she banged on the shutter and shouted for Gregg. Nick picked up the pump-handle he’d tossed to the floor earlier and the red plastic container then started to fill it.

‘Yessss,’ Jill shouted, with a triumphant cry.
..

Gregg was at the shutter controls. ‘I take it it all went well, then?’

‘Yeah, a little wet and wobbly but we managed it.’

‘Wobbly?’

‘Never mind,’ she said, wringing out the corners of the poncho. ‘There’s a tow truck out there, too. Couldn’t we break in and get it going? You know, hot-wire it or something?’

‘Is it an old truck?’

‘Actually, it looked pretty new.’

‘Then there won’t be any point because it’ll have a steering lock, hot-wiring it will get the engine started but the lock won’t release without the ignition key.’ He looked under the shutter to see Nick screw the cap on his fuel container. ‘Nick, you need to get your van back here as quickly as possible so we can get it unloaded.’

‘Unloaded?’ Jill said.

‘Yeah,’ said Nick. ‘We’re gonna give our little friends up at the town hall something to think about.’

She frowned. ‘We’re giving them firework display?’

Gregg nodded. ‘You could say that. And as soon as you and Nick get back with the van, I’ll tell you exactly what we’re going to do and how.’

‘I’m going with him? You’re sending me out in that, again?’

‘Someone needs to watch his back.’

Jill leaned in, lowered her voice. ‘You mean to make sure he actually comes back for us?’

‘No,’ he told her. ‘He’s in it for the girls, now.’

‘Well that must have been some mean hugging session you two had.’

‘It was, and very emotional, too. And you know what else? I think we even bonded a little. Now go get the van.’

‘Okay, but you owe me big time for─’

‘Say chee-ese.’

They both turned to a blinding flash.

‘Sorry,’ Nick said, and pulled out the film. He discarded the chemical layer and placed the photograph on the oil drum with his camera. ‘But I couldn’t resist. Besides, it’s a sort of historical moment, too, wouldn’t you say?’

‘Let’s go, Nick,’ Jill said. ‘Before we all end up historical moments.’

Nick followed. ‘Right behind you,’ he said.