Orion Cross My Sky (3 page)

T
ammy shoved aside
the papers she’d gotten in the mail about her GED. She’d have to study, which was no problem. She could absorb information easily, and she figured if she could memorize
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
, she would have no problem memorizing whatever she’d need to pass the test.

Clara bustled about the kitchen making breakfast, chattering about a science exam she had to take that day. Tammy couldn’t focus. She ran her hand through her hair, then finally tugged it back into a ponytail. She ate breakfast without any gusto, barely finishing her eggs.

Her cousin plopped down across from her at the small dining table.

“You’ve lost like ten pounds,” Clara commented, staring at Tammy as she nudged eggs around her plate.

“Yeah. Something like that. I’m not a little fat girl anymore.”

Clara’s eyes widened. “You never were! I can’t believe you just said that.”

“I can’t believe you’re denying it.” She knew she had a few extra pounds around the middle. She took after her mother, who’d always been a bit on the chubby side.

Now, because she’d barely been eating as she went through this intense adjustment to living away from home and going out among people on a regular basis, she’d lost weight. And she didn’t mind. A part of her wished she looked like Clara—slim, beautiful like her mother Lynette, her angelic features a mirror to the goodness inside her.

“You are
beautiful
,” Clara said, leaning against the table, her tone insistent as if she hoped she could convince her with a few well-meaning words.

“And you’re getting ketchup in your hair.”

Clara gasped, grabbing the auburn strands and wiping them with a napkin. “Shit!”

T
here was
no point in having a car, not in Clearwater, and Tammy was glad of that. One less thing she had to worry about. She could walk anywhere she wished, and today, she and Clara strolled to the library on the corner of Main and Maple Street. As they passed by Pete’s Service Station, the sound of an air gun made Tammy look toward the three open garage bays.

“I wonder what it’s like in there,” she mused.

“Where?” Clara asked.

“The garage.”

Her cousin chuckled. “What makes you wonder about that?”

“I don’t know. I’m just curious.” She had always been curious, which was why she read so much. She wanted to learn everything there was to learn, do as much as she could. Especially now that she was away from her father’s house. She wanted to take part in anything that empowered her, made her feel independent. Earning her GED was a good start.

When they reached the library, Clara took a deep breath. “Well, here goes.”

Her cousin was hoping to get a job as a clerk in the library so she could work after school and on weekends. She’d just applied, and the director had called her for an interview. Clara appeared as if she were trembling in her strappy sandals, interlocking her fingers against her pale blue blouse and black slacks.

“You’ll be fine.” Tammy gently rubbed her back. “I know you’ll do great.”

“You think?” She tilted her head, looking at her as if praying Tammy was right.

“I know it. And while you’re interviewing, I’ll be in one of the study rooms.” She clutched her notebook against her chest. “I don’t think I’ll need to study much, but I don’t want to take any chances.”

They stepped into the lobby, then into the library.

“You’ll be okay,” Clara said, her voice tinged with nervousness. “I’m not so sure about me.”

“Is Gaven here?” Tammy looked around, glancing down rows of books, then peering to her left where ladies stood chuckling and whispering to each other behind the circulation desk.

“No, thank God,” Clara mumbled. “I’m so nervous already. I love Gaven so much, but if he were here right now, I’d feel even
more
nervous.”

“I guess I understand that.” She wasn’t certain because she’d never been in love before. She’d never even dated. She didn’t want to. The very idea terrified her.

Clara went off in search of the library director, and Tammy found a cozy nook at the back of the library where there was a small table and two chairs.

She collected some helpful books, then sat down and began to read.

B
ehind Pete’s Service Station
, there was some empty land, mostly covered by trees. But there was also a smaller garage which housed a project car Orion and Zane were working on. They spent time with the 1979 Trans Am any chance they got. Zane’s father, Pete Johnson, encouraged the boys and took them to a
you-pull-it
junkyard outside of town where he often acquired parts that couldn’t be ordered easily from dealers or distributors.

Being a technician meant hard work, but Orion loved it. He was studying for his first ASE test, which he would take in just a few weeks. Although he hadn’t attended school for it, he’d learned from the best mechanics, and now, he was studying electrical with a passion he’d never had in high school.

“I think she’s almost ready to go,” Zane said, stepping around the car. The well-lit garage gave them plenty of room to work. Zane’s father was often passing used tools to his son, so they didn’t have the best equipment—but it got the job done.

Orion nodded appraisingly at the old beast, which needed a paint job. Its faded blue coloring, coupled with some of the rust around the edges, showed its age, but it was a trouper. The great big bird on the hood, stretched out over the shaker, was the original. Somewhere deep inside, the car was
alive
, and Orion knew he could wake it up. They could get it started with a lot of patience, and it had taken them months.

Now, at last, both Orion and Zane were fairly certain they had a running car on their hands. After a lot of engine work, tinkering with the transmission, and many long hours of dedication, the car would soon be on the road.

“What should we call it?” Zane crossed his arms over his barrel chest.

“Hmm. Not sure.” Orion grinned, a sudden urge to create mischief overtaking him. “Put the hood down. Lemme try to turn the engine over.”

“All right, let me just check a few things first.” Zane grabbed a clean oil rag and wiped off his hands before peeking under the hood to make sure everything looked right. “Okay.”

He put the hood down while Orion climbed into the driver’s seat. Then he leaned against the open window, shaking his head. “What the hell makes you think you can drive ’er first?”

“Get in.” Orion rolled his eyes, making a show of being annoyed.

Once his buddy was in the car, and they were both comfortable on the original dark interior—which was torn and in need of replacement—Orion pushed the key into the ignition.

“Here goes nothin’.” He shoved down on the clutch, putting the car into first gear.

“You realize this beast ain’t got no power steering, right?”

Orion tilted his head to the side, making it clear he didn’t care. Then he turned the key, and the engine grumbled to life like an old man waking up from a sound sleep. It reverberated through his body, sending sparks of pain into his nerves, which he forced himself to ignore. “Shit, listen to this baby purr!”

Putting his strength into it, he piloted the car out of the garage. The sounds of the engine shook him inside and out. The seat beneath him trembled with the force of it.

Zane’s dad was working in the shop, too preoccupied to notice them at first. Orion got a glimpse of Pete Johnson glaring at them, his hands on his hips, as the Trans Am pulled out onto Main Street where the crash had happened only a day before.

If he’d been thinking straight, he would’ve listened to Zane, who was saying something about the registration, the dates on the plate.

Behind the wheel of this car, there was no way he could listen to reason. He’d been seduced by the feel of it, by the gears changing as he handled the stick-shift, by the way the engine grumbled and roared like a dragon.

Even in the midst of this pleasure, pain entered his mind—crawling along the nerves of his face as if seeking an exit. He ignored it again.

“I know what we oughta call this baby,” he shouted over the growling of the beast. “
Terror
. The fuckin’ Clearwater Terror, that’s what this is!”

And with that, he hit the gas and shot down Main Street going upwards of seventy miles per hour while Zane shrieked in the seat beside him and lights flashed in the rearview mirror.

“Goddamn it,” he shouted. “Cops!”

He threw his head back as he pulled over, gripping the steering wheel hard in order to aim the car off the road and along the curb. Sheriff Ryder swaggered up to the driver’s side window, shaking his head as he pulled out his ticket book.

The engine stalled, and Orion slammed the palm of his hand against the steering wheel, something close to fury coursing through his veins.

“
W
hat was that
?” Tammy murmured to herself, leaning up from her seat and peeking out the window. She didn’t see anything, just Main Street, and a few cars passing by.

A moment before, there’d been a terrific roaring, the sound of an engine increasing in power. Tires screeching. It was that engine that got her, the resonance invoking something primordial within her. She couldn’t explain what it was, but her excitement piqued as she looked out the window, hoping to see something—
anything
.

But there was nothing there, just Clearwater on a normal Saturday. She knew she was missing something, wished she could see farther down the road.

Slumping back into her seat, she sighed and returned to her studying.

But in the back of her mind, the sound of that engine resounded. The vibration of it made her tremble with anticipation. Something inside her had changed; something about that vicious roar had invoked a different part of her.

A part of her that sought power.
Control
over her surroundings, over the shambles that was her life.

She began to believe she would have so much power—so much control—if she were behind the wheel of the beast that had driven by.

Leaning back, she began to fantasize, envisioning sparkling chrome and engines.

She thought of the sounds she’d heard coming from Pete’s Service Station. She wanted to see all that for herself. In that moment, she decided she’d check it out.

She wasn’t sure why, but she wanted to see inside that garage. Know what it was like. She wanted to learn, to experience.

And there was no better way to do it than first-hand.

T
ammy had finished putting away
the books she’d read when Clara found her in the non-fiction section.

“I hope you put those away correctly,” Clara said, raising her head and looking down at her cousin, smirking.

“Of course I have.” Tammy stuck out her tongue. “I know the Dewey decimal system.”

“Good.” Clara grabbed her hand and tugged her toward the front entrance. “Because I would hate for my new
coworkers
to think my cousin is mis-filing books in the library.”

“Your…your new coworkers?” Tammy beamed. “You got the job?”

“Of course I did!” As they walked out of the library, Clara giggled. “Okay, so I was really,
really
worried. But you were right. I did just fine. I start on Monday, after school, but I’ll probably get a lot of weekend hours. At least until I graduate high school in a couple months.”

“And you want to keep working here?” she asked as they headed back toward home, crossing Main Street.

“Yeah! You know, I’m really excited about it.” Clara paused, as if gathering her thoughts. “I’m even thinking about going to school to study library science.”

“Really? Wow. My cousin, the librarian. Has a nice ring to it!”

“It does,” Clara agreed with a chuckle. “I can’t wait to tell Gaven.”

Back at home, they ordered pizza to celebrate, then sat on the couch and watched a movie until the food arrived.

“So, did you get enough studying in?” Clara asked as she grabbed her third piece of pizza.

“Yeah, but…”

“But what?”

“While I was sitting in the study room, I heard this engine. It was so loud. It roared past the library, but by the time I looked out the window, it was already gone.”

“What about it?” Clara tucked herself against the couch cushions, munching on her pizza.

“I don’t know. I loved it.” She turned and looked at her cousin, taking a moment to mute the television. “You don’t understand. It was like…like all of a sudden, in that moment, everything made sense. I could see myself behind the wheel of that car, whatever it was, and I wanted it so bad I felt like I was about to burst out of my skin. Clara, I think I want to work in a garage.”

Clara stopped chewing. She stared at Tammy for a moment as if deep in thought, then set her plate on the coffee table. “Wow. Really?”

“Really. I want to learn how to work on cars. You seem…like you don’t believe it or something.”

“No, it’s not that. I mean, it hasn’t been that long since you got away from home. It hasn’t been long for either of us, but for you…I guess I’m just seeing the real you. What you can become, what you might become. And it’s amazing. Startling, really. We were so confined in that house, all we could do was read, and learn, and
hide
from him. Now that we’re out, I guess I’m just starting to see you change.”

“I’m sorry,” Tammy said.

“What? No, no, I didn’t mean it in a bad way.” Clara shuffled across the couch, wrapping her arms around Tammy. “You’re changing in a
good
way, believe me. I think you’re finding yourself, the real you. And
if
the real you is a mechanic…” She pulled away, peering at Tammy with a soft smile on her face. “Then go for it.
Be
a mechanic. Be whatever you want. Your choices are endless.”

Content, Tammy leaned back, then un-muted the television. The girls watched movies until late at night. She drifted to sleep with the sounds of engines reverberating in her mind, shaking her to her core.

She would be a mechanic, all right. And she’d do the best she could.