Page 18 of Her Summer Hope
Something that she should be doing. She couldn’t afford to lose the hours.
“Damn it!” she whispered, hitting the steering wheel.
The old car had been fine all these years. Sure, it had a lot of miles on it, but it ran fine. Used to. Rob had taken it in for regular oil changes and other things. She wasn’t even due for an oil change yet.
She fished her phone out of her purse and searched for the nearest garage, then called the number.
“Hello?” some grumpy guy answered.
“Uh, yeah. My car broke down. I’m right outside of town on the north highway. Could you send a towtruck?”
He gave a condescending huff. “Well, let’s hold on and troubleshoot here a minute. You may not even need a truck.”
“Pretty sure I’m going to need a truck,” she said, trying to keep the sarcasm from her tone. There was no need to irritate the man with the tow truck.
“What happened to the car?”
“The engine made a noise and the car stopped. It won’t start up now.”
He sounded exasperated. “What kind of noise?”
“Well, it sounded like a sewing machine and then there was a loud pop and oil started leaking out everywhere.”
“And smoking,” he said.
“Yeah.”
He sighed. “I’ll send the truck out.”
∞∞∞
“You blew a gasket. We can fix it, but you’ll probably be better off just buying a new car. Probably be cheaper.”
She sat on the grungy vinyl seat in the mechanic’s office as he slid some papers over to her. “This is the quote for the repair.”
“That’s more than the car’s worth!” she said incredulously.
“Yep.”
“How’s your deductible?”
“Too high.”
She sat back, crushing her purse and the papers to her chest. She wished she was at home with the baby and the kids. She wished Rob was back and everything was…well, if not normal, then at least almost normal.
“I can take it off your hands for you,” the mechanic offered.
She had no idea what a fair deal was for a twenty-year-old car with a blown head gasket.
The man was of indeterminate age beneath the grease and dirt. He didn’t look like a crook, but that didn’t mean he was honest either.
“How much?” she asked, dreading hearing his offer.
“Three hundred bucks and I’ll waive the towing fee, and that’s being generous.”
She could take the three hundred dollars and try to find another car. She thought she might be able to get a small loan, but she didn’t what sort of interest rate to expect. Her credit was basically nonexistent. Rob had made all the major purchases and she’d never had so much as a credit card.
The mortgage was in her name now, so that might give her rating a small boost, but she didn’t know for sure.