After sitting in that cop’s car for nearly an hour, Jeremiah leaned in the front door of the Desert Sands service office. Arms folded across his chest, and obviously not eager to get to work, he was suddenly obsessed with the hunk of metal they’d pulled out of the wash. “If it can be broken, it can be fixed,” he said. Jeremiah was always on the clock, which pretty much meant that he worked when he wanted to. Austin, on the other hand, was expected to keep busy when he was there.
“Don’t mess with it,” Austin said, lugging a case of bottled water towards the vending machine out front.
Jeremiah unclipped his keys from his belt loop and sorted through them for the vending machine key. “You parked it on my lot, güey.”
“Look, we don’t even know what it is yet.” Austin dropped the case to the sidewalk, ripping open the plastic wrap.
“It’s a big ass chunk of dusty metal. It’s probably worth something to somebody.” Jeremiah swung the vending machine front wide open.
“Just don’t mess with it,” Austin said.
“Well, what the hell are you going to do with it?”
“I don’t know.” Austin wanted to tell Jeremiah about the other chunk of metal Jynx had found, and what had happened the night before, but if it was just a mild case of sunstroke or something like it, he didn’t want to make a big deal out of the whole thing. “I just think we should find out what Jynx wants to do with it first.”
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Jeremiah grumbled. “Well, she didn’t do much with that fridge you guys pulled out last year.”
Again, with the fridge jokes. “I just don’t see the point.” Austin finished placing the last few water bottles and closed the vending machine door. He tossed the keys up on the counter.
“Just do me a favor, huh?” Jeremiah pulled an old cardstock sign from behind the pegboard parts rack, blowing some dust off it. “I want you to cut yourself a template for an aluminum patch.”
Austin crumpled the plastic wrap and cardboard into the trash can by the front. “I think we should just leave it alone, Jeremiah.”
“Look, I’ll cover the front as long as it takes you to trim out the patch.” He ambled back behind the counter to take a seat in the stool and presumably look up chopper websites on the desktop while Austin sat out in the sun, tracing a big template.
“And then what?” Austin asked.
“You can take it up to Englehorn’s garage, see if he’ll help you cut it out.”
“I don’t think we should mess with it.”
“If it’s a real saucer, it won’t fly far with a big hole in it, and if it’s just a Hollywood prop, it’ll probably be worth more whole. Either way, you’re not out much besides a few hours’ worth of work.” Jeremiah slapped a fat black marker on top of the cardboard sign and nodded towards the back lot. “It’s practice, Austin. Just do it.”
Certain that Jynx was going to pitch a fit if she found out, Austin reluctantly picked up the card stock and the marker, figuring that he could tell her about it that night, provided that she was feeling better. He made his way out to the back lot and the saucer, resting under a tarp by the side gate.
“And be sure to run at least a half inch of scrap along the edge, for the weld!” Jeremiah called from the front office.