“I am sorry that we had to meet
under these circumstances. Visit to a body shop is never pleasant,” said Paul.
“I don’t think we would have met otherwise
or under any other circumstances,” he doesn't say.
He punched the door opener and
after the initial crackling of chain and levers, the giant door to his body
shop began to retract.
She unbuttoned her overcoat, put
her bug-eyed sunglasses on and got into her Honda. With the turn of the key,
her car came to life and she drove away and disappeared into the traffic.
Paul punched the button and door
started to shut as he watched her disappear. As he had watched most of his
customers leave. All of them secretly hoping and praying that they never had to
return to Paul’s shop. And Paul wished the best for them.
He had been doing this 40 years
and he had met all kinds of people. He had helped mend 1970’s Ford Mustang Mach
1, never to see the customer again. He had fixed an ordinary Honda for a
not-so-well to do family that didn’t carry any insurance. He had heard plenty
of stories about – just drove off the dealer’s showroom and …. , stories about –
I was just pulling out of my drive way and stories about – I was southbound on
I-94 and…
Customers often left out the
details about what ensued a few minutes before the crash or often lied about
it. More often, customer left out details about personal injury and attachment
to the vehicle. Paul didn’t mind that
but sometimes wondered why.
Paul fixed cars and fixed them
very well. Perhaps, he had the best gig in town. For that he charged an
appropriate price as well. He didn’t expect anything more but every now and
then, a cab driver turns back to see the passenger he just dropped, a first
responder makes the mistake of checking on the patient, and a flight purser
thinks about the courteous passenger in 1B on JFK to LAX, Paul did too.
“I fix their cars. Make them so -
like nothing ever happened. Remove all traces of the incident, so that they are
never reminded of that terrible moment in time when they met with the accident.
I do get my compensation and curt a
thank you but rarely a smile (that an artist would for his painting or sculpture).”
