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Monday, September 2, 2013

Part Two: When You're Desperate for Work...


Yesterday's post was Part I.  If you haven't read it, go ahead and do that now.   I'll run for coffee and meet you back here in five...


Kevin dropped the van off at my house that night.

“She stalls,” he said, “and there’s no heat. You’ll want to keep the scraper on your lap to keep the frost off the inside of the windshield. Which reminds me, the driver’s side windshield wiper sticks, so you’ll want to stick your hand out the window to give her a good slap every now and then, except when you unwind the window, don’t do it all the way or it won’t go back up. Oh, and the tires are a little worn, so you’re going to want to slow down well in advance of any need to come to a full stop.”

He paused.

“Oh, and if the brakes don’t work – and I’m not saying they won’t! – but if they don’t, the hand brake works pretty well.”

There was the briefest of pauses as we considered the implications of using a hand brake to stop a work van and the conditions under which Kevin already knew that it would work “pretty well”.

He tossed me the keys. “Pay day’s on Friday,” he said. He handed me a map. “Don’t be late picking them up!”

Pick up time at Parkers Prairie was 6:30 a.m., which meant that I was out of the house and coaxing the van down the road by 6:00.

February in Minneapolis is a blue-tinged month, a month of brittle air and reluctant machinery. The van moved, glacier-like, from residential area to freeway, where it blocked traffic and pulled vile words from passing motorists, a mobile example of what happens to nice girls who don’t go to college.

My little criminals were waiting for me when I pulled up: Boomer (burglary), DuWayne (child support, driving after revocation, driving without insurance), Randy (burglary), Jeff (vandalism).

DuWayne was rolling a joint even before, it seemed, he climbed into the backseat.

“Pearl!” he shouted. “Long time no see!”

DuWayne and I had grown up in the same trailer court.

“We gonna have time to swing by my guy’s place?” It was Boomer.

His “guy”. Hmm. “No,” I said. “I’m not going to your dealer’s.”

The smell of marijuana drifted toward the front of the van.

“Hey, I’d really appreciate if you guys didn’t –“

“Didn’t what?” It was Randy. “Smoke a little dope? Come on, now! What else we got, huh?”

They all started talking: We got no women. We got no prospects. We sleep in a big locked room.

I sighed. “Do what you want,” I said. “I don’t care.” I paused. “Roll down the windows.”

And maybe it was the long hours. Maybe it was the outrageous amount of pot smoke that rolled through the back seat of that van, but the two months I drove van for my brother’s crew was both the easiest and hardest way to make a buck. There was the equipment we loaded and unloaded in the snow, the nap Jeff took every afternoon in the back of the van, the runs to Subway for lunch, the winter gloom of arriving at the workhouse before the sun came up, the dark loneliness of the drive back home.

The worst day on the job was my very last.

When you’re on a slight incline at the head of the line of cars waiting for the light to turn, when you’ve managed to scrape a face-sized line-of-sight into the windshield, when it’s snowing and you are forced to unwind your window to stick your arm out, intermittently, to un-stick the wiper blades, when the stoners in the back are passing yet another joint, what happens next?

The light turns green and the van stalls.

The voices from the back rise, chorus-like.

“Give it some gas!”

“No, you’re flooding it!”

“Well pull over!”

“How’s she supposed to pull over, dingus? It’s dead!”

“Hey, are we sliding?”

We are. The van, at the head of a line of now-impatiently honking cars, is slowly slipping backwards.

“Hit the brakes! Hit the brakes!”

“I'm SITTING on the brakes!” I scream. “We’re on ice!”

“Holy crap, we’re going to slide into the car behind us!”

“Get out!” I yelled. “Get out and stop this van!”

Four men, reeking of pot, bloodshot eyes squinting in the failing light, climb out of the van and throw their shoulders into its back end in an attempt to keep it from rolling.

HONK! HONK! HOOOOOONK!

I look in the rearview mirror to see the man in the BMW behind us, the car that would have a van in its grill were it not for the men with their shoulders against it, laying on his horn.

He has lowered his window: “Move that piece of @#$!”

I smile feebly, hold my hands up in the international gesture of futility.

The driver of the Beemer is not amused. “Move it!” he screams. “Move it or I’m calling the cops!”

The guys keeping the van from sliding start cackling. The cops? He’s going to call the cops on a stalled vehicle?

DuWayne turns around, leans his back into the van and grins at him, revealing his missing teeth. “You want us to let this go, then?”

“I want you to move it, you low-life losers!” the man screams.

And that’s when the van starts slipping again. From the driver’s seat I hear all four voices from the rear of the van begin to shout.

“DuWayne!” It is Randy’s voice that rises above the din of the other men’s voices. “DuWayne, no!”

DuWayne is suddenly at the BMWs driver’s door, pounding at the window, which appears to have been raised against the vision of the large, dentally-challenged man charging his car. “Who you callin’ a loser?! WHO YOU CALLIN A LOSER?!”

Various forms of the sentence “no, DuWayne, no!” hit my ears as I close my eyes and put my right hand back on the keys. I begin an internal chant: Start. Start. Start. Start!

The van roars to life. In my rearview mirror I watch two of them pulling DuWayne from the hood of the car. I throw the van into gear, moving cautiously sideways as the tires seek traction.

“Get in the van! Get in the van!” I scream. “Let’s go! Let’s go!”

It takes all of them to pull DuWayne away from the BMW. They throw themselves into the back of the van, and the sliding door shuts as I drive away.

The BMW chooses to stay at the light, a line of cars behind him, honking.

I start a “normal” job in an office two days later.



Boomer, Randy, and Jeff have gone on with their lives, I’m sure, but doing what, I have no idea.

I receive a “butt-dialed” call from DuWayne roughly eight years later where I learn, through diligent eavesdropping, that he and someone named “Cherry” are down at a lake, drinking beer in his car, and, apparently, admiring each other’s swimsuits.

I hang up when they start removing them.

I no longer drive a van load of dope-smoking petty offenders to work every day.

And in hindsight, I kinda miss it.

22 comments:

Perpetua said...

Pearl, this is such good writing! You have led a very adventurous life for a big-city person. :-)

vanilla said...

You have had you moments!

Douglas said...

Ah, the smell of marijuana wafting through the cold air of an unheated van... I miss that also. Never had to play chauffeur to a bunch of ne'er do wells, though. They all had motorcycles and would show up at any bar that would have them. But work? That's for sissies.

jenny_o said...

This is such a great story, and so well told, Pearl. Seems you can handle whatever crosses your path! This has to be one of my favourites.

Launna said...

Hahaha Pearl, too funny, thanks for sharing :)

joeh said...

One of your best!

If the horn honker was driving a Chevy it would not have been nearly as good, but a B-friggin- eemer!! Love it.

I once met a guy who owned a BMW and he wasn't an ass-hole...no really.

Agent 54 said...

That was thoroughly amusing. I really enjoyed it.

Q: What is the difference between a Porkypine and a BMW?

A: A Porkypine has pricks on the outside.

Anonymous said...

I used to drive a Beemer, but not in Minneapolis!!

Yamini MacLean said...

Hari oM
Oh my word, I was holding my breath till I knew that van got started again!!!! It's these 'hairy' situations that make life a tapestry and help us know when it's going good.

But I get that you miss it too! A wonderful memoir. YAM xx

Dr. Kathy McCoy said...

I love this lively two-parter, Pearl! Whew! And I thought I had had some strange jobs in my life! You win the prize, hands down!

maurcheen said...

Hahahaha! SO funny missus! :¬)

xxx

Elephant's Child said...

Oh my. Lucky the van chose that moment to revive itself - and that BMW driver was a wimp.

Gigi said...

Without a doubt, this is one of my favorites.

River said...

I'm rather glad that van started up again. imagine trying to hitch a ride with the BMW.

Anonymous said...

I've been to MN once and it was in Feb. I had a feeling it wasn't the best month to be there:-) Loved this!

Jo-Anne's Ramblings said...

What a bloody funny experience you had, damn you have had an interesting life.......and a funny one to boot...

jabblog said...

Why do men (and it's usually men) think that honking a car horn will make the stalled vehicle ahead move?

Jinksy said...

You sure can spin a mean story, lass! ♥ Brilliant as ever...

Moving with Mitchell said...

"I hang up when they start removing them"??? Pearl, I'm disappointed in you!

Anonymous said...

One of the best perks in a job is fun co-workers. You seemed to have had those in spades.

Starting Over, Accepting Changes - Maybe said...

And here I complained about a co-worker who ate constantly at her desk.

You have certainly had some colorful adventures and what great material you have for your stories.

chlost said...

I think I have see DuWayne around here. "Dentally challenged"? Love that!