One of those days: Part 9

One of Those Days

Part 9

    Quitting Time

“What're you jawin' about boy, is it a bad valve stem?” the beaver asked waddled over to the tire mounting machine.

“Yes, what's wrong, can you fix it?” inquired Merai.

Quinn fished inside the tire and produced a limp, black doughnut.  “This car still has inner tubes!  And yes I can fix this one, but the other,” he motioned to the quill pricked tire, “will probably not be salvageable.”

“Hee, hee, I ain't never seen tubes in a car in ages, but yer old girl is a classic!”

“Do you have any spare inner tubes here?”

“No we don't, but the local auto mega mart has them, they're not that expensive, about $10.”  explained Quinn.

Merai looked at her watch  “How late are you guys open today?  It's quarter to five.  Do we have enough time to patch the tire and get a new tube?”

“Well,” Verne looked at Quinn  “Quittin' time is five here on a Saturday”

“Oh, how long will the patch take to do?” Merai looked down.

“It'll be about 15 minutes to get the tire mounted back on your car...” said Quinn.  His nose started to redden again, and he shuffled his feet uncomfortably.

“I'll finish up Mrs. Caruthers' car, Quinn, you do what you need to do.” the beaver retreated to the back of the garage and turned on a small radio, filling his area with soft country music.

Quinn started patching Merai's inner tube with a fast setting rubber cement

“Are you Ok?” asked Merai.  The young mechanic seemed strangely downcast.  

“I'm ... sorry.” he replied.  

“What are you talking about?” said Merai,   “This is ok, you can get me back on the road, I'll just have to be a little more careful, until I get another spare.”

“No, ... it's not that,”  Quinn's ears fell.  “I passed you up.”

“What?  What do you mean?”