Listen, p.9
Listen, page 9
“Since I was fifteen,” he said.
“Just a kid?”
“Bought it on time, didn’t I. Paid it off too. It ain’t much, but it’s mine.”
“Where did you learn how to do this work?”
He shrugged. “I was born with it,” he said. “See that ol’ Maytag motor over there, the one with the foot kick starter? I rebuilt that when I was twelve. Put it on a soapbox and rode it all over the goddang country.”
“But you must have learned the skills somewhere.”
“Right here in this shop,” he said. “Ain’t bragging, but nobody can do it better or faster than Wheeler Benson.”
“Your father wasn’t in the business?”
“He wasn’t in nothing,” he said. “I was a mechanic the first time I heard an engine run. I could feel it, smell it, hear it, and I knew whether it was healthy or sick. I work backwards, see, from what it is to what it should be. Pretty simple, ain’t it?
“I go to sleep thinking about engines and wake up thinking about the same. I been that way my whole damn life. I can’t read a book, or want to. I got three words in my vocabulary, and they’re all cuss words, saved up for when I peel my knuckles or Willie comes visiting. Mechanic is what I am, through and through.”
“I have trouble tying my shoes,” Liam said.
Wheeler gave him a long look. “I can see that,” he said. “We going to eat or not?”
“Anytime.”
“Chicken fried steak,” he said. “A big one.”
chapter 15
They sat at the back booth where they could see out the window, and Liam ordered two chicken fried steaks with fries. Wheeler had finished his before Liam got the ketchup shook out of the bottle.
“Damn good chicken fry,” Wheeler said. “Now, what is it you want to know from me?”
“Let’s begin with your personal bio. You married, Wheeler?”
“Nope.”
“You never wanted to be?”
“Didn’t say that.”
“Girlfriend?”
Wheeler held out his arms. “Take a look at me. Would you want your daughter going out with me?”
“It’s a point,” Liam said.
“Are you married?” Wheeler asked.
“Nope,” Liam said.
“That’s because you eat like a goddang sissy,” he said. “Women don’t like that.”
“What about kin?” Liam asked.
“What about ’em?”
“Brothers, sisters?”
“Nope,” he said. “My ma took one look at me and said she didn’t want no more. Said I looked like a pink mouse when I was born.”
“Where do you live, Wheeler? You have a home somewhere, I assume?”
Wheeler dipped his chin and looked up through his brows at Liam. “In my shop. Where the hell you think? I got a cot in the back and a wood stove for heating and cooking. I been living in that shop since I was fifteen. A man can’t pay for a house and a shop at the same time, can he?”
Liam said, “You get enough to eat, Wheeler?”
“That steak of yours sure looks good. How about half?”
Liam cut his steak in half and put it on Wheeler’s plate. It disappeared in three bites.
“Best goddang chicken fry ever,” he said, dabbing his mouth.
“You have any dreams to fulfill, Wheeler, something you would like to do or have that you haven’t achieved yet?”
“A new Ford truck,” he said. “Straight six with standard transmission. A man can drive one of those bastards to the end of time. Easy to work on too. With a straight six there’s enough room to climb in next to the engine and stand upright. Change the plugs, set the points, clean the carb, and run that son of a bitch for another hundred thousand. That’s what I want, free and clear.” He paused. “Maybe a radio too. Sons of the Pioneers, ‘Tumbling Tumbleweeds.’ ”
“You have time for a piece of pie?”
“Sure,” he said. “All I got is ol’ Willie’s car, and he don’t need it. I favor apple.”
The waitress brought pie and refilled their drinks. Wheeler dug in.
“You a religious man, Wheeler?”
Wheeler wiped the last of the pie crust off his plate with his finger. “Depends on what you mean,” he said.
“Do you go to church?”
“Would you want to sit next to an old grease monkey like me?”
“Do you believe there’s an afterlife?”
“I hope not,” he said. “This one is plenty for me.”
“You went to school, right?”
“More or less, less than more, actually. Eighth grade’s the law, you know. I pretty much slept through the last five of those eight. Was doing most of my mechanic work after school, you see. Payments on that shop were low but steady. I did lots of cars. Hell, there ain’t a car in this town I haven’t fixed once or twice.”
“You ever think about death, Wheeler?”
“Once,” he said. “The car lift dropped on me. Broke my leg in two places. I lay trapped under that son of a bitch for three hours before ol’ Fred Mooney brought his Buick in for a tune-up. I thought about it then.”
“But not since?”
“It ain’t never fell but once,” he said.
When Liam got back, he found a note on his door from Hattie, asking if he could drop by her room. He took the stairs down and knocked. She answered, dressed in her sweats.
“Oh, hi,” she said. “I was just going out for a walk. Want to come?”
“Thanks, but I’m too full of steak to walk anywhere. I can come back.”
“No, you’re fine. Come on in.”
He took up the overstuffed chair that she kept near the window. “What’s up, Hattie?” he asked.
She sat down on the edge of her bed. Even in her sweats, Hattie looked cool and ready for the world. She was unflappable, a characteristic he had detected in her father as well.
“I had opportunity to talk to Father,” she said. “He asked if you would consider coming for an interview. I told him I would find out.”
“For the real estate thing?”
“Yes.”
“To tell you the truth, I wasn’t sure he was serious.”
“That he was trying to please me?”
“It did cross my mind.”
“Oh, he’s serious. He also asked me once again to come home, to work for him in the new company.”
“And?”
“I’m thinking about it,” she said. “You should too, Liam. This could be a career for you. You ought to at least talk to him. And who knows but what we could get to work together.”
He looked out the window. The Castle on the Hill was lit in the orange glow of sunset, and the lights in the classrooms had blinked on.
“I don’t have a car,” he said. “How would I get there?”
Hattie crossed her leg over her knee and hooked her hand under her chin. “The thing is, I planned to go myself and talk to him. I’m borrowing a friend’s car. You could ride with me.”
“When?”
“I’m taking off work Friday.”
“Day after tomorrow?”
She nodded. “It’s a three-hour drive, so it would be a long day. I could use the company. And there’s something else I wanted to talk to you about. I did some checking with some people I know about that girl, Eden Sawyer. The roller mill isn’t hiring, but there might be something at the broom factory.”
“Yeah?”
“It’s hard work, but I suspect she is used to it.”
“I’ll pass it on,” he said.
“While Eden Sawyer is no doubt deserving of your time, Liam, you should be careful about getting too involved.”
“What do you mean?”
“Your interest in her well-being could be misinterpreted.”
“I see,” he said. “I’ll let her know about the job. I think she will be pleased for the opportunity.”
“And so will you go to the city with me? I mean really, Liam, what do you have to lose?”
He stood. “Let me think about this, Hattie. I’m still under contract with FWP. I’m not sure I can just walk away.”
Back in his room, Liam organized his notes. He thought about Wheeler buying that old shop at age fifteen and making a go of it. His determination and, in some ways, his intelligence were actually quite remarkable. Liam had known a good many students at college who wouldn’t have lasted a day in Wheeler’s circumstances. Here was a kid with no money, no support, no knowledge of the outside world, who learned to tear engines apart and put them back together on his own.
The more people Liam interviewed, the more he realized that intelligence was where it was found, that it came in many forms. He considered Wheeler’s junk-filled yard, a living record of his problem-solving skills, concrete evidence of his ability not only to diagnose a problem but to repair it, and with salvaged parts.
His ability to take nothing and turn it into something was remarkable in its own way; yet, underneath all that was a boy who had been rejected and underestimated his whole life. Here was a guy who didn’t feel that any girl could care for him, that he was unworthy to sit next to someone at church. Down deep he underestimated who and what he was. All this despite that half the town would have been afoot without his skills. Perhaps the most ironic aspect of it all was Wheeler’s low opinion of himself. It wasn’t right. It wasn’t fair.
He walked to the window and looked out. The sun had set, and the castle lights shone magically atop the hill. Hattie’s effort on Eden’s behalf had been a generous thing for her to do, and he was anxious to get word to Eden. But he couldn’t help but wonder why Hattie was so concerned about him getting too involved with a girl he barely knew.
In any case, he needed to get word to Eden, but the lack of transportation had complicated things ever since he’d arrived. Though he’d bargained for the use of Willie’s car, it was actually awkward to ask for it for personal business, and he wasn’t convinced that he would get very far in it anyway. There was the book in the library that she had mentioned. He could leave a message and perhaps avoid imposing yet again on Willie.
He slipped on a light jacket and made his way downstairs. When he exited the Pribble, he found the evening cool and the street quiet. There would be a few night classes still in session at the college, but for the most part, Atlas nightlife had wound to a stop.
The doors to the castle were still open when he got there, and he could see students in the classroom at the end of the hallway. The library was open as well, but empty, except for the librarian, who was busy shelving books at the back. Liam pulled down Wolfe’s Of Time and the River from the shelf and sat down at a table to write out his note.
I have some news. Could you meet me in the castle turret Monday evening at seven?
He folded the note, slipped it under the front cover, and reshelved the book. He’d no sooner finished when the librarian approached.
“May I help you?” she asked.
“Oh, just browsing.”
“We close at eight,” she said.
“Thank you,” he said, making for the door.
As he walked back to the Pribble, he thought about what Hattie had said, about how her father’s interest in him might well result in a business career. At the bottom of the hill, he paused and looked back at the castle, a dark shadow rising into the night sky. In that moment, he made his decision. If Eden Sawyer could paint her pictures and Wheeler Benson could build a business on his own, then maybe he could put together a successful advertising campaign for Hattie’s father. He should at least consider it.
chapter 16
They left at sunrise for the trip to the city. Liam opened Hattie’s door, and she slid in under the wheel. She smelled of lemon and wore turquoise earrings that clinked like ice when she bent to get in the car.
They turned east and were soon driving into the prairie, a vast sea of grass that undulated and swelled against the never-ending wind. Hattie adjusted her seat before settling into the drive.
“To tell the truth, I’m a little nervous about this,” Liam said.
Hattie looked over at him and smiled. “So you should be. I won’t lie to you. My father is a very exacting man. He has his ideas, and they are always the right ones. But you have it so much easier than me, Liam.”
“Like?”
“Well, you have the option to quit. Quitting your father is definitely more challenging.”
“I think you’ve done pretty well for yourself, Hattie. Being an administrative assistant could not be that easy.”
“Challenging, as they say, but I enjoy the work. I’m all about organization and scheduling and record keeping. It fits my personality just fine, don’t you think?”
“I think you are one of the most adaptable people I know.”
“Spoken like a true advertising man.”
“You’ve never mentioned your mother, Hattie.”
She grew quiet. “They’ve been divorced for many years now,” she said. “My mother has children of her own. I have a half sister.”
He rolled down his window a crack. The air smelled of sage and sunflowers and was warm on his face. “I don’t get it, Hattie. If you are good at the job and you like it, what’s this trip all about for you?”
She hung her hands over the steering wheel as she thought. “The college position has never been my job,” she said. “My father arranged it. I still work for him in a way, you see. That being the case, I’m thinking that I’d just as well be better paid.”
“But couldn’t you just leave? Go somewhere else?”
“It’s not that easy, Liam. I want to be free, to be on my own, but then in some ways, I don’t. It’s complicated, but there you have it.”
When they pulled into the city, Liam was struck with the enormity of the skyline. It was much larger than he remembered, and the traffic was more frantic. A tension and unease permeated the moment, as if some unseen emergency was in progress. He had grown accustomed to the quiet and calm rhythm of Atlas, he supposed, to the feeling that there was tomorrow, and yet another tomorrow beyond that.
Hattie drove with the same confidence that she’d demonstrated in her work, and they were soon secured in the elevator that rose effortlessly to the top floor of her father’s building. The secretary, a woman in her forties with perfectly coiffed hair and bloodred nails, looked up when they entered.
“Yes?” she said. “Do you have an appointment?”
“I’m Hattie, Mr. Cooper’s daughter. He’s expecting me.”
“His daughter?”
“That’s correct.”
“Is this a business call or personal?” she asked.
“Both,” she said.
The secretary tapped her cheek with her bloodred nail. “It’s that I need to know whether to retrieve records or not, Ms. Cooper. Mr. Cooper is adamant about having the appropriate information available.”
“Mr. Cooper should be able to remember who I am without records,” Hattie said.
“One moment, please. I’ll see if he’s available.”
When the secretary came out, she said, “Mr. Cooper’s on the phone. He will buzz.”
Fifteen minutes later, they were buzzed in. Hattie’s father stood and kissed her on the forehead before extending his hand to Liam.
“Sorry about the delay,” he said. “Business, you know. Do sit down.”
The office was plush, rich and luxurious, like a fine yacht. The library covered one wall, leather-bound books, gold lettering, all perfectly unused. The desk was teak, or perhaps walnut, and a bronze sculpture of the company founder himself sat on a pedestal to the right of the desk. A small bar, festooned with crystal tumblers, a decanter, and a leather ice bucket stamped with the company logo, sat near the window.
“I’m pleased that you could come, Liam,” he said. “I’ve made progress on my real estate company, and I’m in need of a comprehensive and aggressive advertising plan. Real estate is all about advertising, you know. In short, I’m looking for someone competent and hard-hitting and who is up to the challenge.
“I’ve taken the liberty of doing a little background check on you. The consensus is that you were a good student, not stellar, but competitive both in and out of the classroom. Your experience in advertising, as you know, is limited. But a man willing to learn can make short work of that.
“As for your personal conduct, it appears to be largely clean, providing we don’t look too closely at one specific weekend, which you may or may not remember. In the end what I need here is someone who knows when there is blood in the water and is willing to act on it.”
“My recollection of that weekend is a bit dim,” Liam said. “As for my credentials, I understand that my knowledge of the real estate business is limited, but I do know how to learn. I’d like to think I’d make a pretty good advertising man.”
“And I know how to buy and sell,” Cooper said. “In the end, that’s what this is all about. Here’s the deal. I want you to seriously consider coming to work for me. The schedule will pick up pretty fast once we are under way. I’ve already purchased a fair amount of real estate, residential as well as commercial. Now, I need to get my team together.
“The starting salary will be competitive. If you hit the ground running, it could go up and go up fast.” Liam started to say something, but Cooper held up his hand. “I don’t want an answer immediately. My sense is that you are just the man for it. Hattie feels the same way. But if you were to take this position, you’d have to prove yourself every day and give nothing less than a hundred percent. I want you to think about it, to be sure it’s what you want. I won’t lie to you, Liam. The job will be demanding, and I will expect total commitment, nothing less. If you don’t want to do that, don’t take the position.”
