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“Johnny, Johnny, Johnny, You’ll Never Be Bored” Part 3

John pulled right into the auto body repair shop.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“We have to get this rental car fixed. We didn’t take the insurance and if we return the car like this, the rental company is going to charge us a fortune.” John replied.

“So is an auto body shop.” I argued, “Drive me to AutoZone and I’ll get it fixed.”

“AutoZone, what the hell are they going to do? AutoZone doesn’t do body work.” John said.

“Trust me.” I countered, “As a single mother, I’ve gotten plenty of car repairs done at AutoZone. Just drive me there.”

“Okay,” John said with a smirk, “If you think so…”

We pulled into AutoZone and got out of the car. As I went to walk inside, I turned around to find that John was right behind me.

“Oh no, go stand over there, away from me,” I said, “I’ve got to do this myself.”

John reluctantly stood off to the side and waited.

As I approached the counter of the parts desk, I was greeted with a smile by an employee with a name tag that read, Carl.

“What can I help you with today?” Carl asked.

“Well Carl,” I began, “I have a bit of a situation on my hands…”

I went on to explain the circumstances that led up to and included the scraped, yellow painted side of my rental car and how I failed to take the insurance that went beyond the hundred-dollar deductible that my credit card provided.

“I know just the thing.” Carl said, as he lead me down the correct isle to locate the product I needed.

Carl handed me two seperate containers and a cloth. Ten dollars each. Not too bad I thought.

I  thanked Carl, paid the twenty dollars and walked out the front door.

“I got it!” I yelled to John.

He replied, “So that’s going to fix it? How much was that?”

“Twenty dollars.” I smiled, as I opened one of the containers and dampened the cloth.

“This is ridiculous.” John stated.

“Just wait over there John.” I instructed as I went back inside.

A few minutes later I returned with Carl in tow.

“Carl, I’m really not sure how this works.” I said.

“I’d be more than happy to show you ma’am.” Carl said with a smile, as he began to spread on the first product and really put some elbow grease into the application.

Carl and I began talking and exchanging stories about rental cars and car repairs.

“You see,” Carl said, “Once you wipe all of this off, then you can apply the second product…just like this.”

John waited patiently as Carl worked and recounted a story about how he took a rental car to an outdoor concert. He said that he and his friends sat in lawn chairs that they had placed on the roof of the car. When the concert was over and they removed the lawn chairs the entire roof of the car was dented.

“What did you do?” I asked.

“We were young, we just returned it that way and left it in the parking lot. We were scared shitless, but we never got a call from the rental company or got in any trouble.”

We both laughed and before I knew it, Carl was detailing the door jams and the rental car was perfect. No one would ever be able to tell that anything had happen to the car at all.

I handed Carl a twenty dollar tip and thanked him for all that he had done.

When Carl went back inside, John walked over and said, “I can’t believe this! You just got our car repaired for forty bucks!”

“Yes, I did!” I smiled, “Stick with me and I’ll show you the ropes.”

“It doesn’t hurt to be a pretty blonde.” John said as he gave me a hug.

I blushed and glanced at the time.

“We’ve got to get on the road.” I said, “I have to get home and get to work. We’ll drive as far as we can then find a hotel for the night.”

How hard could that be?

Stay tuned for PART 4 and the rest of our adventure.

My Life I Swear 

 

 

 

 

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“Johnny, Johnny, Johnny, You’ll Never Be Bored” Part 2

When we arrived in Charlotte, we rented a car to get around town. Early the following morning, we were up before dawn and pulling into the gated community of my old apartment complex. It was still dark out as we waved the pass to activate opening the entry gate.

SCRAPE!

“What the hell was that?” I asked.

We both got out of the car to inspect.

Great. John had hit the cement barrier that was there to guide cars into the entry of the complex.

The side of the rental car was scraped and covered in yellow paint from the cement post.

“I’m sorry, it’s so dark I didn’t know that I was that close. We’ll have to take it to a body shop.” John said.

“A body shop? We can’t afford that!” I replied, “Let’s just go and see how much stuff is left in the apartment. We’ll deal with the car later.”

We climbed the steep stairs to my third floor apartment.

The sun was starting to rise as I unlocked the door. There were boxes, lots of boxes…pictures, lamps, some furniture and of course, the boys beds.

“You’ve got to be kidding me. This is a lot of stuff!” I said with a sigh, “There’s no way that we can move all of this by ourselves.”

I had an idea. I shuffled through my purse and located the business card of two guys, that had previously moved a couch for me. It was a long shot with little notice, but thankfully they were available to help.

Okay, at least that was settled.

Now all we had to do was pay for the rental of a moving van, pay the movers, help them by running up and down steep flights of stairs while taking the smaller items to the van in order to save time…

And have enough money for gas to drive the moving van back home to Connecticut and to pay for one night at a hotel room to break up the drive…

Oh, and repair the rental car before we returned it.

What were we going to do about that?

Stay tuned for part 3

To find out what happens next.

My Life I Swear