The Christmas Clock and A Song For My Mother - Kat Martin Page 0,6
for this one but she didn't. I guess she forgot.”
More likely, the tooth fairy being Lottie Sparks had forgotten about it. Joe had noticed that the old woman was becoming more and more forgetful.
He opened the driver's side door of the T-bird and motioned for Teddy to climb in behind the wheel.
“Wow, this is great.” The kid was too small to see out but he sat there grinning, leaning back in the red leather seat.
“Yeah, pretty great.” Joe reached down and ruffled the little boy's hair. “You like cars, Teddy?”
“I love 'em. I'm gonna have a really fast car when I grow up.”
Joe laughed. He could remember thinking that same thing. His second car had been a hot '82 Camaro with a custom grill and a four-speed manual transmission. Little Teddy would have loved it.
Joe smiled at the memory and helped the boy climb down from the car. “We're just about done with the Merc. Tell your grandmother it'll only be a few more minutes.”
Teddy didn't move. “I was thinking... I been raking up leaves for Mrs. Culver—the lady in the house next door to ours and I'm weeding for Mr. Stillwater across the street. Do you think you might have some work I could do?”
Joe shook his head. "Sorry, kid. A garage isn't a good place for someone your age. Too much heavy equipment. Too many ways you might get hurt.”
The boy's face fell. He gazed around the shop like it was Disneyland and he couldn't get a ticket to get in “I need to make some money so I can buy my gramma a present.”
“Yeah? What kind of present?”
“A clock. She loves it. She always stops to look at it when we go to town. I'm saving up so I can buy it for her for Christmas.”
Joe thought of the woman in the other room. From what Bumper had told him, Lottie Sparks was all the family the little boy had. Mother dead. No father. No man at all in the family.
Teddy was studying the engine Joe was working on in the corner. Joe knew it was stupid but all of a sudden, there he was, opening his mouth, probably letting himself in for trouble.
“I’ll tell you what. You go ask your grandmother. If it's all right with her, you can work a couple of hours a day cleaning up around here.”
Teddy grinned, flashing the hole where his tooth should have been. He turned and raced off toward the waiting room and a few minutes later, Lottie Sparks walked in.
“Teddy says you want to hire him.”
“I know this isn't the best place for a kid to work, Mrs. Sparks, but I promise not to let him come in here where we keep the heavy equipment, not unless I'm with him.”
“It isn't good for a boy to be around an old woman all the time. He could use a man's guidance. You just make sure he doesn't get hurt.”
“I'll keep a real close eye on him, Mrs. Sparks.”
“He can ride his bike down here. It's only a few blocks. Long as he goes the back way, there won't be any traffic.”
“That sounds good. If he wants, he can start tomorrow afternoon.”
Teddy was grinning again. “What time, Mr. Dixon?”
“How about ten till noon? And it’s Joe, not Mr. Dixon. And that guy over there, that’s Bumper.”
“Bumper?” Teddy turned toward the stout man walking toward them. Bumper was almost twice Joe’s age, looking forward to an early retirement. At five feet nine, he was five inches shorter than Joe and built like a fireplug. “That’s a funny name,” Teddy said.
“They started calling him that when he was a kid,” Joe explained. He and Bumper’s son, Charlie, were best friends, had been since they were freshmen at Dreyerville High.
“Because he liked cars?” Teddy asked.
Because, according to Charlie, he was pudgy as a kid and always running into things. But Joe just said, “Yeah, Bumper’s a top mechanic.”
Teddy looked up at Bumper with awe but made no comment. The man beneath the grease-stained overalls was still a little chunky but not like the old days, at least according to Charlie.
The Merc was finished. Joe backed the car out of the garage and waited while Mrs. Sparks and Teddy climbed in.
As he watched them drive away, he thought of all the problems a kid Teddy's age could cause, how much time watching the boy would take, and marveled at the crazy things he sometimes got himself into.