Nightsounds – Part 7
“The Challenge”
The hot, steamy water hissed and cascaded from the shower nozzle above her head, pelting her skull and then running on down her neck and shoulders, dripping from her nose and chin, snaking down her tired body… falling into foamy rivulets that lazily spiraled down the drain. The colors of the white foam swirling and moving against the burgundy fiberglass floor reminded her of the always melting raspberry Cream-Sickles she ate as a child, her father always bringing her one home on Friday after work during the summer… Thoughts about her Dad, her mom, her life swirled through her mind just like the sudsy water did beneath her feet. And for some reason, she felt more alone at that moment than at any other time in her life...
She stood there leaning, with her hands against the shower wall and her face downward for long time thinking. Where did it all go wrong? How could she have missed all the signs? How could Harry do this to her? Her tears fell like so many other droplets that afternoon in the shower stall… And now – of all things, this…
The car sat silently in the dark bay, it’s paint gleaming and looking very wet. The gray cloth seats were freshly vacuumed as was the black carpet, the trunk had received the same attention and even the spare tire had been blackened anew. A-Pillar gauges sat silent, ready to announce the boost pressure as well as Knock Retard. Atop the Stereo pod sat a darkened Scanmaster 2, it’s deep red face looking near black in the subdued light. But better yet, beneath the hood sat a motor that has no equal in efficiency on the street as a factory car. Although its heart was foolishly considered by many (mostly the uneducated) to be small in size and thus an easy target, it was actually extremely brutal and unforgiving to its opponents. And now, less than three months after coming to this new garage, this new owner, the heart was stronger yet.
Power producing intake air now was drawn through a 9” K&N filter, on through the MAF sensor and through a new chrome MAF tube that replaced the ductwork style factory unit before entering the factory Turbo to be compressed. The compression/heating of the air was then channeled through a modified turbo outlet pipe to a new CAS factory stock replacement/upgrade intercooler. There, the air charge was cooled and became denser and capable of more power, before exiting the intercooler outlet and into the newly red-painted up-pipe. Then, it would be drawn into the gaping mouth of the polished blade of the throttle body before entering each of the six cylinders to be compressed once more. Compressed – AND mixed with high-octane fuel introduced through a new set of 009 injectors fed by a 340M Walbro pump and controlled by a new adjustable fuel pressure regulator that had been hotwired. The boost was now controllable via the upgrade to an adjustable boost control rod, the computer work now handled by a newly programmed Lubrant chip. The exhaust gases left through the 100% stock exhaust, exiting through the angle-tipped exhaust pipes. This marvelous and yet sinister power plant was now capable of producing well in excess of one horsepower per cubic inch – at the rear wheels; wheels now shorn with the new style BFG drag radials. All of this - at the highly economical additional cost of little more than twelve hundred dollars.
It is said – and widely believed among most automobile enthusiasts – that cars have souls. And some of those souls/personalities of various cars are easily identifiable. There is the fun-loving spirit of the new VW Beetle. The elitist and artsy personality of the C5 ‘Vette. The take-no-prisoners feeling that demands your attention the moment you buckle in the driver’s seat of a Viper. And even some Turbo Buicks have varying auras. Some are happy go lucky, some are temperamental racers, and some are just great family-mobiles. But once in a while, and very rarely at that, comes along the alter ego of all that is nice and comfortable and fun and normal about a car. Sometimes, the relative no one talks about is in there, lurking, waiting to be loosed with the turn of a key and the movement of a transmission shift lever. Sometimes, the kind of car that everyone wants to own but seldom get to – comes along. This car silently waiting for the right time – is one such car.
Sitting now, the shadows growing long through the garage windows, the dust particles dancing and twinkling in the sunlight above its hood, the car was impatient. It was time. It was time to do what it had been waiting 14 years to do. Destroy someone else’s fantasy… Because THIS car, this autotive evil-incarnate was from the darkest of the Dark Side. And if it had a name, it could only be called one...
...Evil.
She sat down on the bed, the brightly colored comforter bunching beneath her damp towel. Drying her hair with another towel, she stared blankly at the dresser mirror, not even feeling like she knew who the woman was she saw. The white bath towel fell away from her shoulders leaving her exposed. She thought of all the times this happened when she was with him and how it led to an afternoon or evening of romance and passion. But not anymore… Ironically the realization of how long it HAD been since she had felt romance and passion in her life slapped her hard. And she slowly began to realize, at that very moment, that if she was going to have those things again, then she and she alone had to create the opportunities for them. Oddly, that growing realization gave her a nearly forgotten tinge of personal happiness. Now, for the first time in many, many months she had a plan - she was going to have fun again. And she was going to be romanced and romance someone, even if it meant she had to make the first move.
So, she picked up the phone and dialed…
Harry sat at the bar, smoking yet another cigarette, an unsavory habit he had picked up since he told Sally the news. His eyes tightened as the blue smoke curled and wafted about his fingers that were nervously flicking the red glistening ash into a heavy glass ashtray. Oh well, he thought – what’s the worse smoking can do? Kill me? He chuckled at the thought. How can you kill someone who is already dead inside? How can you? He laughed at the ludicrity of the thought and smiled at himself in the smudged mirror behind the bar that reflected the truth back at him. He was ugly – inside and out. And there was one thing he had to do before it was too late. Maybe tonight would be the night.
He looked out the tiny window in the door to the bar and saw the evening was coming on. Gathering up his car keys and cigarettes, tossing a twenty down on the bar to cover his tab, he turned and walked out, pieces of peanut shells sticking to the bottom of his shoes. Yeah, he thought… I gotta do it tonight. I gotta do it while I still can…
Dan didn’t answer the phone. Hmmm, she wondered as she hooked her very sheer front hook bra before sliding her low cut V-neck top over her head. (“Accentuate your positives” said Redbook - and she had always been told that she had some nice "positives"!) He had told her that he was usually always home in the evening so she was sure he would be there. But he wasn’t answering the phone - busy in the garage maybe? Pulling up her black patterned slacks up and over her tanned and smoothly shaven legs, she remembered the lunch date they had shared after she bought the car, how the food was superb and the conversation fun and light. How Dan’s eyes twinkled when he told he how he always liked her and that he was going to ask for her number those many years ago but that Harry had beaten him to it. She laughed at that one, wishing quietly to herself that he had been a little quicker too, wriggling her curvy rear into the tight pants and buttoning them up. Maybe both their lives would have been different.
But he never called her after that and she was hesitant to call him, fearing she would look desperate and clingy. Ok, so now she didn’t care about that – but darn it! She finally gets up the nerve to call him – and he’s not home. Just her luck, she thought, brushing her hair once more before putting on a dash of lipstick, smacking her lips and smiling His loss, she grinned to herself...
Well, maybe I’ll drive by his house anyhow, she thought. After all, she hadn’t taken out the Buick for several days while she did the mods to the car. She had thrown herself into the task, letting it be cathartic for her and it worked. She always loved working on cars. Her old 502-powered Camaro was her pride and joy and she hated having to let it go after the divorce. But she also had always coveted Megan’s Turbo Buick and now, she finally had one of her own. A good one it seemed. It actually seemed to be a part of her now, part of who she was. The new Sally.
Digging the keys out of her purse, she walked through the utility room, her low heels clicking on the white/black linoleum, and out the garage door. There it sat. Its long, low hood with the power bulge beckoning her. The sharply angled B pillar catching her eye as it always did, the wide backend and big rectangular tail lights making her smile. Maybe tonight, just maybe, she could show those babies to someone…
She pulled the door handle up and swung the long door open, slid in behind the wheel and shut the door. It closed loudly, being manufactured in an era when they used metal – not plastic. Nothing like a Fisher body to make one feel safe. Sliding the key into the ignition and turning it, she heard the big Walbro say a friendly hello by making the hood-mounted fuel pressure gauge dance to life. Then, rotating the key further forward, the starter engaged and the Turbo Buick came awake with a vengeance. Spitting for only a moment, it sat and idled while Sally flipped the parking light rocker switch with a ruby red tipped finger. Pushing in the tiny “Power” button on the stereo after hitting the garage door opener, she listened to the whir of the power antenna extending from the right fender and the quickly increasing clarity of the local radio station.
Reaching behind the gray steering wheel, she pulled the tilt lever towards her, lowering it to the just right position. Not needing to adjust the power seat much, she was ready. She checked her rear view mirrors, and after buckling her seat belt with a solid “click”, she slid the T-bar shifter into “R” and backed out of the garage into the cool evening air. Good, she thought, these cars love cool night air. Backing on out onto the garage apron, she braked long enough to push the garage opener button again and watched the white door close, matching the other one that secured her other car. Continuing to back out the drive onto the street, she braked, pulled the shifter on back through “N” and into “D” and smiled. Yeah… tonight’s gonna be fun. Let’s go see what ol’ Danny is up to…
Right foot to the accelerator, the throttle body opened and cool night air rushed inward. And now, after many years silently waiting... Evil was loosed upon the streets…
Raven
“The Challenge”
The hot, steamy water hissed and cascaded from the shower nozzle above her head, pelting her skull and then running on down her neck and shoulders, dripping from her nose and chin, snaking down her tired body… falling into foamy rivulets that lazily spiraled down the drain. The colors of the white foam swirling and moving against the burgundy fiberglass floor reminded her of the always melting raspberry Cream-Sickles she ate as a child, her father always bringing her one home on Friday after work during the summer… Thoughts about her Dad, her mom, her life swirled through her mind just like the sudsy water did beneath her feet. And for some reason, she felt more alone at that moment than at any other time in her life...
She stood there leaning, with her hands against the shower wall and her face downward for long time thinking. Where did it all go wrong? How could she have missed all the signs? How could Harry do this to her? Her tears fell like so many other droplets that afternoon in the shower stall… And now – of all things, this…
The car sat silently in the dark bay, it’s paint gleaming and looking very wet. The gray cloth seats were freshly vacuumed as was the black carpet, the trunk had received the same attention and even the spare tire had been blackened anew. A-Pillar gauges sat silent, ready to announce the boost pressure as well as Knock Retard. Atop the Stereo pod sat a darkened Scanmaster 2, it’s deep red face looking near black in the subdued light. But better yet, beneath the hood sat a motor that has no equal in efficiency on the street as a factory car. Although its heart was foolishly considered by many (mostly the uneducated) to be small in size and thus an easy target, it was actually extremely brutal and unforgiving to its opponents. And now, less than three months after coming to this new garage, this new owner, the heart was stronger yet.
Power producing intake air now was drawn through a 9” K&N filter, on through the MAF sensor and through a new chrome MAF tube that replaced the ductwork style factory unit before entering the factory Turbo to be compressed. The compression/heating of the air was then channeled through a modified turbo outlet pipe to a new CAS factory stock replacement/upgrade intercooler. There, the air charge was cooled and became denser and capable of more power, before exiting the intercooler outlet and into the newly red-painted up-pipe. Then, it would be drawn into the gaping mouth of the polished blade of the throttle body before entering each of the six cylinders to be compressed once more. Compressed – AND mixed with high-octane fuel introduced through a new set of 009 injectors fed by a 340M Walbro pump and controlled by a new adjustable fuel pressure regulator that had been hotwired. The boost was now controllable via the upgrade to an adjustable boost control rod, the computer work now handled by a newly programmed Lubrant chip. The exhaust gases left through the 100% stock exhaust, exiting through the angle-tipped exhaust pipes. This marvelous and yet sinister power plant was now capable of producing well in excess of one horsepower per cubic inch – at the rear wheels; wheels now shorn with the new style BFG drag radials. All of this - at the highly economical additional cost of little more than twelve hundred dollars.
It is said – and widely believed among most automobile enthusiasts – that cars have souls. And some of those souls/personalities of various cars are easily identifiable. There is the fun-loving spirit of the new VW Beetle. The elitist and artsy personality of the C5 ‘Vette. The take-no-prisoners feeling that demands your attention the moment you buckle in the driver’s seat of a Viper. And even some Turbo Buicks have varying auras. Some are happy go lucky, some are temperamental racers, and some are just great family-mobiles. But once in a while, and very rarely at that, comes along the alter ego of all that is nice and comfortable and fun and normal about a car. Sometimes, the relative no one talks about is in there, lurking, waiting to be loosed with the turn of a key and the movement of a transmission shift lever. Sometimes, the kind of car that everyone wants to own but seldom get to – comes along. This car silently waiting for the right time – is one such car.
Sitting now, the shadows growing long through the garage windows, the dust particles dancing and twinkling in the sunlight above its hood, the car was impatient. It was time. It was time to do what it had been waiting 14 years to do. Destroy someone else’s fantasy… Because THIS car, this autotive evil-incarnate was from the darkest of the Dark Side. And if it had a name, it could only be called one...
...Evil.
She sat down on the bed, the brightly colored comforter bunching beneath her damp towel. Drying her hair with another towel, she stared blankly at the dresser mirror, not even feeling like she knew who the woman was she saw. The white bath towel fell away from her shoulders leaving her exposed. She thought of all the times this happened when she was with him and how it led to an afternoon or evening of romance and passion. But not anymore… Ironically the realization of how long it HAD been since she had felt romance and passion in her life slapped her hard. And she slowly began to realize, at that very moment, that if she was going to have those things again, then she and she alone had to create the opportunities for them. Oddly, that growing realization gave her a nearly forgotten tinge of personal happiness. Now, for the first time in many, many months she had a plan - she was going to have fun again. And she was going to be romanced and romance someone, even if it meant she had to make the first move.
So, she picked up the phone and dialed…
Harry sat at the bar, smoking yet another cigarette, an unsavory habit he had picked up since he told Sally the news. His eyes tightened as the blue smoke curled and wafted about his fingers that were nervously flicking the red glistening ash into a heavy glass ashtray. Oh well, he thought – what’s the worse smoking can do? Kill me? He chuckled at the thought. How can you kill someone who is already dead inside? How can you? He laughed at the ludicrity of the thought and smiled at himself in the smudged mirror behind the bar that reflected the truth back at him. He was ugly – inside and out. And there was one thing he had to do before it was too late. Maybe tonight would be the night.
He looked out the tiny window in the door to the bar and saw the evening was coming on. Gathering up his car keys and cigarettes, tossing a twenty down on the bar to cover his tab, he turned and walked out, pieces of peanut shells sticking to the bottom of his shoes. Yeah, he thought… I gotta do it tonight. I gotta do it while I still can…
Dan didn’t answer the phone. Hmmm, she wondered as she hooked her very sheer front hook bra before sliding her low cut V-neck top over her head. (“Accentuate your positives” said Redbook - and she had always been told that she had some nice "positives"!) He had told her that he was usually always home in the evening so she was sure he would be there. But he wasn’t answering the phone - busy in the garage maybe? Pulling up her black patterned slacks up and over her tanned and smoothly shaven legs, she remembered the lunch date they had shared after she bought the car, how the food was superb and the conversation fun and light. How Dan’s eyes twinkled when he told he how he always liked her and that he was going to ask for her number those many years ago but that Harry had beaten him to it. She laughed at that one, wishing quietly to herself that he had been a little quicker too, wriggling her curvy rear into the tight pants and buttoning them up. Maybe both their lives would have been different.
But he never called her after that and she was hesitant to call him, fearing she would look desperate and clingy. Ok, so now she didn’t care about that – but darn it! She finally gets up the nerve to call him – and he’s not home. Just her luck, she thought, brushing her hair once more before putting on a dash of lipstick, smacking her lips and smiling His loss, she grinned to herself...
Well, maybe I’ll drive by his house anyhow, she thought. After all, she hadn’t taken out the Buick for several days while she did the mods to the car. She had thrown herself into the task, letting it be cathartic for her and it worked. She always loved working on cars. Her old 502-powered Camaro was her pride and joy and she hated having to let it go after the divorce. But she also had always coveted Megan’s Turbo Buick and now, she finally had one of her own. A good one it seemed. It actually seemed to be a part of her now, part of who she was. The new Sally.
Digging the keys out of her purse, she walked through the utility room, her low heels clicking on the white/black linoleum, and out the garage door. There it sat. Its long, low hood with the power bulge beckoning her. The sharply angled B pillar catching her eye as it always did, the wide backend and big rectangular tail lights making her smile. Maybe tonight, just maybe, she could show those babies to someone…
She pulled the door handle up and swung the long door open, slid in behind the wheel and shut the door. It closed loudly, being manufactured in an era when they used metal – not plastic. Nothing like a Fisher body to make one feel safe. Sliding the key into the ignition and turning it, she heard the big Walbro say a friendly hello by making the hood-mounted fuel pressure gauge dance to life. Then, rotating the key further forward, the starter engaged and the Turbo Buick came awake with a vengeance. Spitting for only a moment, it sat and idled while Sally flipped the parking light rocker switch with a ruby red tipped finger. Pushing in the tiny “Power” button on the stereo after hitting the garage door opener, she listened to the whir of the power antenna extending from the right fender and the quickly increasing clarity of the local radio station.
Reaching behind the gray steering wheel, she pulled the tilt lever towards her, lowering it to the just right position. Not needing to adjust the power seat much, she was ready. She checked her rear view mirrors, and after buckling her seat belt with a solid “click”, she slid the T-bar shifter into “R” and backed out of the garage into the cool evening air. Good, she thought, these cars love cool night air. Backing on out onto the garage apron, she braked long enough to push the garage opener button again and watched the white door close, matching the other one that secured her other car. Continuing to back out the drive onto the street, she braked, pulled the shifter on back through “N” and into “D” and smiled. Yeah… tonight’s gonna be fun. Let’s go see what ol’ Danny is up to…
Right foot to the accelerator, the throttle body opened and cool night air rushed inward. And now, after many years silently waiting... Evil was loosed upon the streets…
Raven
