Chapter 4

“This is great news! Thanks, Johnny!”

Marqi hung up the phone and turned to Mila, who was lying on the opposing bed watching television.

“Guess what?” she asked the other girl.

“What?” Mila responded dutifully.

“My car is fixed!” Marqi clapped her hands together gleefully. “Want to come with me to the shop to pick it up?”

“Okay,” Mila agreed. They both shoved their feet into their shoes and grabbed their room keys.

“All set?” Marqi asked. Mila nodded and followed her out of the room.

They walked quickly up and over the course of ten blocks it took them to reach Anderson Towing.

“Finally,” Marqi said as they approached the garage. “You can’t imagine what a relief this is!”

Mila smiled politely and traipsed into the shop after Marqi.

“Hi, Johnny!” Marqi said, giving the guy behind the counter a dazzling smile.

“Hello, there, beautiful,” Johnny smiled back at her. He reached beneath the counter and pulled out her set of keys and an invoice. “There you go. All set.”

“Oh, great! Thanks!” Marqi said, accepting the keys and the yellow sheet of paper. “How much do I owe you?”

“Nothin’,” Johnny beamed. “Insurance already took care of it.”

Marqi almost tripped over nothing. “They... they did?”

She was confused to say the least. Had her mom called the insurance on her? Granted it was a huge relief not to owe money, to be able to just get her car and go, but still...

“Damn,” she said.

“What?” he asked.

She couldn’t help smiling, “Now my premium’s gonna go up!”

Johnny and Marqi shared a laugh that Mila wasn’t in on. Instead she watched the exchange as an outsider and waited to be drawn back in.

“So...wow, really, I don’t owe you anything? For the towing or anything?” Marqi asked.

Johnny shook his head. “Nope. Car’s yours, free and clear. She’s got a new battery in her and you’re good to go.”

“Well, great. Great! Thank you!” she smiled again. Taking a deep breath, she turned to Mila and said, “Come on!”

Mila followed her out to the corner of the lot where Marqi’s beat up old car was parked. They got in and Marqi put the key in the ignition.

“Here goes,” she half-muttered to herself. The engine leapt to life at the turn of the key, and Marqi felt a surge of relief run through her. Even though she knew logically that it had been fixed, there was still a pessimistic part of her that feared something would go wrong. They pulled out of the Anderson lot and rolled slowly down the street.

“Gosh,” Marqi said, “this feeling of freedom has me giddy. I hardly know what I should do next! My God... I can actually go back to school tomorrow if I want.”

“That’s great,” Mila said.

“Yeah,” Marqi agreed, with only a slight pang.

“What?” Mila asked, sensing Marqi wasn’t entirely happy.

“It’s just... nothing.”

There was a long pause during which Marqi turned the car down onto the next street.

“Can we stop here?”

“What?” Marqi squinted at where Mila was pointing. “The thrift store?”

“Yes.”

Marqi shrugged and pulled the car to the curb. “All right.”

Mila hopped out of the car and strode purposefully into the shop. She needed more clothes, and this was just the place. She began digging through the racks of discarded garments and had just found a pair of worn jeans in her size when Marqi called out, “Hey, what do you think of this?”

She held up a black sheath dress that shimmered slightly.

“It’s beautiful,” Mila replied.

“And cheap, too,” Marqi grinned. She folded the garment over her arm and the two girls went back to searching through the racks. It didn’t take Mila long to build up a pile of clothes, and soon she was ready to hit the register. They carried their items to the tired clerk and waited as he rung them up.

When they were seated beside each other in the car once more, Marqi turned to Mila and said, “Hey, would you want to go to the laundromat with me? I hate going by myself, and I need to wash some things so I don’t have to do laundry first thing when I get back to school.”

“Sure,” Mila said.

“Great,” Marqi said.

They drove back to the Lantern Motel where both girls gathered up all their soiled garments and stuffed them into grocery bags. They carried their clothes to the car, and then drove a few blocks to the laundromat that Marqi had remembered seeing.

Mila stared uncertainly upon entering the establishment.

“Come on,” Marqi urged, dragging the bags of clothes to the nearest set of washers. She began stuffing clothes into the drum and Mila, having no clue about what she ought to be doing, simply followed suit until every article had found its way into a washer.

“Do you have quarters?” Marqi asked. Mila shook her head. “Singles?”

“Singles?”

“One dollar bills?”

“Oh. How many do you need?” Mila asked timidly.

Marqi shrugged. “I don’t know. A couple for detergent, a couple for the change maker.”

Mila pulled a few dollars from her pocket and offered them to Marqi. The brunette grabbed them along with Mila’s hand and pulled her toward the vending machine. “What brand do you like?”

Mila stared at the various miniature boxes of detergent before them and said, “Whatever you like.”

Marqi pushed the dollars into the change maker one at a time, then scooped up several dollars’ worth of change into her palm. She thrust half of it into Mila’s hands, saying, “Here, hold this.”

Marqi shoved quarters into the vending machine and selected several boxes of soap. Then they returned to their machines where Mila watched Marqi dump the contents of the first box into one of the machines. She tossed a box to Mila and said, “Go on.”

Mila followed Marqi’s example and soon every washer held clothes and dry detergent. Marqi fed quarters to the machines and started them cycling one after another.

“It’ll be nice to have clean underpants again,” Marqi said with a smile.

“Yes. Very nice.”

“Hey,” Marqi said, standing up straighter, “I’ve got a deck of cards in my glove box. You know how to play rummy?”

Mila shook her head.

“Well, then, you’re going to learn something new tonight!” Marqi scrambled off to retrieve the cards from her vehicle. She hummed to herself happily, glad to have her car back at last. Finally things were looking up.