Act 4

I remembered why I had stopped using one of my alarm clocks that was buzzing madly in my ear the morning of Aug 30th; it was impossible to hit the snooze without some considerably finagling. I so wanted to go back to sleep, but I had way to much to do, so as usual I got up got dressed, peeped out the crib to see if Tom had stayed home from work, for whatever reason. The house was empty; I relished in the silence for a moment and headed out the door still semi groggy. As I stepped out the morning sun, blinded me and forced me to grab for my shades, but I had inadvertently left them in my car, so I painstakingly made my way towards my car. Finally after a few seconds my eyes adjusted and I could see for the most part about 6 ft in front of me beyond that was pretty much a blur of colors, and that’s when I noticed one missing.

My heart stopped beating, my palms began to sweat and then I breathed, as I thought back to the night before and whether or not I actually left to back to the house and ended up parking somewhere else. I realized I hadn’t. I looked over at any of the other spots thinking Tom may have grabbed the keys off the counter and moved my car as a joke, so I walked to the end of the lot and back, still no car. “Car payments!” I thought. I quickly grabbed the card for my lien holder and called to find out if they had repossessed my car, and with somewhat relief was informed that I had at least 6 months before they would take that type of measure. “Damn, did I park in reserved spot?” I saw a maintenance worker walking across the middle of the parking lot and asked him, and again somewhat relived found out that the corner spot I selected wasn’t. But then it hit me, “If it wasn’t reserved, then where the hell was my car? Shit my car’s been stolen”. Then I thought of one last thing, being screwed by more than one apartment complex in my lifetime, I called the front office after calling Tom to confirm that he didn’t snake my ride for the hell of it for the day. Now granted it had been a long time since anything like that had happened, but yes I do feel that Tom has it in him to pull that kind of stunt, why you may ask. Simply put why not, I would. The front office confirmed that no cars had been removed from the premises by their command so to speak and that I should call the police. I stopped for a moment, lit another cigarette, half smiled, and thought about how the officer on duty would feel to see me calling in again about something else with my car. Within 5 months I had called Mesa PD a total of 4 times, in regards to theft on my car, and had them called on me twice. Once of the 2 incidents I wasn’t even there for, and the 2nd was due to holding an employee of my old apartment complex at gunpoint, he was in the wrong apartment at the wrong time. I simply escorted him out of my apartment at 5am after pulling him from being next deep in my fridge.

The officer on duty took my name and number and kind of chuckled at my records stating that they were beginning to wonder when I was going to call in with a stolen car report as it seemed by the looks of the incident reports I was on a crash course for it to happen. I thanked him for taking, the situation so seriously, in my most sarcastic and pissed off tone and hung up getting his name and badge number, I’d be damned if my car gets stolen and some pencil pusher is going to try and make light out it before I start to make light out of it. I called my insurance company next and they said they’d calla round to some of the tow yards to find out if it was picked up by mistake and to call them back when I had an official police report and number to give them. I then called work and told them I possibly would be in that day due to the theft, they appeared to be understanding and only asked to call in again and let them know if I wasn’t going to make it in the next day as well. I felt so lost and confused, helpless even, then I remember everything that was in the car, my new Mp3 stereo, My Tommy, end table, “Damn!” my blades, and right as I was coming to grips with the loss, the sun started annoying me and once again I searched for my glasses. After checking everything in my room hoping I had brought them in, I was soon confronted with the fact they were in the car. I was so enraged, the only thing I could do was sit on the stoop and sigh, and just sit and let whatever I was feeling pass so I could move on with whatever I had left.

With all the formalities out of the way I called my mom and told her happy birthday, as well as informed her of the incident, which she promptly tried to maneuver the situation into something that was my fault, of course this was impossible, as I had nothing to do with it. She then told me everything I should do, and I told her I had already done it. So after a bit, we hung up and I called Tom back, but to no avail, he was busy. He did tell me however he had talked to Eric and that he could scoop me and take me to work if needed. Not knowing anything else that could be done, I told Tom to have him come scoop me. In the mean time, I really don’t remember what I did for the few hours before Eric came and picked me up. I know I emailed Heather’s phone and let her know, but other than that it’s a blur, until Eric came. For the most part I think I just sat inside the apt and tried to take my mind off things. Kind of like when you’re driving to work and before you know it you’re already there without even remembering the drive. A few hours passed and I got ready for work, and slipped into my normal routine, until, I walked outside of course and there was no car. This was going to be a shitty day, I had made arrangement for Heather to pick me up on the way to work, as Eric spoke of how karma and come back, and how everything is planned by God. All I could think about was seeing Heather, and being able to go somewhere away from everything if only for a little while and feel almost happy if not content with the world around me, as long as she was there.

I got to work and of course Brian and everyone was there and of course they didn’t need to know about anything, but human nature of those whom I’d informed couldn’t help but spread the word, and soon everyone knew. I felt like I was back in Sierra Vista, where everyone knew everyone else and everything about them. I had given Mesa PD my work number as well just incase they forgot my cell or could reach me for whatever reason. After what seemed like forever, I realized I still had another 7 hrs at work; this was going to be a very long day. Fortunately a little bit of luck came into play. As I was on call my Level 2 walked by and told me the police had found my car and to call them back. The officer whom I spoke with told me it was in okay shape but looked pretty banged up. I had the option of having the police tow it or to come and have my insurance do it. I opted to come see my baby for myself, and to see the torture that someone had placed upon her. With a slight sigh of relief I asked if Jeff could take me to my car, as I really didn’t want anyone else to take me. But that small glimmer of light was tarnished when my manager would only let Brian go, though I really didn’t want him to come anywhere near my new residence I had no choice. Brian obviously picked up on this as he took his sweet ass time about getting to the location where the car was recovered, then to have the nerve to ask if I could give him some money for gas. All I can say was my fuse was now burning at hyper speed and reaching its end quick, as I forked over a 2 bucks for his mild and pathetic efforts.

As we approached the alleyway where my car was found I could tell it was noticeably low to the ground, more so the usual, due to the low profile rims and tires and that it leaned considerably to one side. My jaw dropped, as I got closer, I could only imagine the little bastards that mistreated her. Granted it was a Neon, like previous postings you’ll note it was not just any Neon. For one it was my 1999 platinum metallic, 5-speed, 2-door coupe Neon with, near limo tinted, 145 horsepower engine modified with cold air-intake (no exhaust needed), Kumo low profile tires, Encci rims, Custom Alzteeza tail lights, Pioneer Mp3 CD player, and of course without saying, enough juevos to blow all upcoming civic off the line and down the stretch. Now she sat stripped inside out of all these items. Closer discover to the drivers side door told the a separate story, the had ran up against something hard and black as there was a huge streak running from the front quarter panel to beyond the rear window. The tires told a story of recklessness, the brand new Kumo tires, were worn down beyond the tread and had metal peeking in several areas. Damn someone had put her throw the ringer, as I made my way around I could take in the full extent of the damage as I could already see the dangling wires from where my tail lights used to be, which prompted me to check the front, and the fog lamps were gone as well, As I inspected the dangling wires and whether or not any live wires were hanging a brief chill ran across my spine, I quickly pooped the hood to the relief that the intake was still there, at least something was looking up. I then popped the trunk to see my blades were still there as well. Apparently the thieves didn’t have time or the manpower to carry off everything, especially since they had walked off with a 2-drawer dresser as it was.

The office explained that I couldn’t driver the car since there were no lights on it, but did offer to have it towed wherever I’d like. I called my insurance company and they then told me they would pick the car up and deliver it to a repair shop, but if I wanted to get a car for the weekend I’d have to leave the car there for a bit and go to the rental agency then as they were in the process of closing and had referred several peoples to them already and knew they were running out of available vehicles. I relayed this info to the officer and asked if there was anyway she could stay with the car until the truck came, in which she promptly stated she wasn’t about to baby-sit a crippled Neon and that I couldn’t drive it because I had no taillights and the steering column had been cracked. I couldn’t help but to stand up for my already tormented neon and coaxed the officer until she admitted she drove a civic, which promptly drew laughter from deep within. I felt somewhat relieved at the fact that I was laughing blatantly in the eyes of the law and there was nothing she could do about it. Granted my ride was crippled, I still taunted her stating even in its current state I could have taken her rice burner. Now don’t get me wrong Civics are a good car, but only if you do the work, and I don’t me slap a tip and some stickers on it, which is what most of the wannabe’s do. She did take a little offense to me laughing by stating “at least I know where my cars’ at” and at least my car’s not the easiest car in the world to steal. This peeked, my curiosity and I asked how so. She explained to me the design flaw with the door and that 2 door Neon’s were easiest cars to break into, just by manipulating the window and weather seal. As I made plans on implementing my ultimate car alarm once she was back on the road my insurance company called and advised me to get a move on, he also stated the tow truck was less than 5 minutes away and that I should leave the key under the front floor mat and unlock the passenger door.

So once again I had to rely on Brian to drive me once again down the road to the rental agency, where we parted ways. I got my rental after some haggling and drove back to the scene pleased to see my car had been picked up. Thinking I had some time to kill, I decided to go pick up the steam cleaner for the house, grab a bite to eat then head back to work for the final hours of the day, and asked if it was okay if I stayed late or came in on my day off to make up the time lost, but they advised me it wasn’t needed as the night had been extremely slow since I left and they didn’t expect it to get any busier over the weekend or the next day being as it was Friday. So I logged back in and sat for a few hours, thinking things were working out and being taken care of. I then got a voice message on my phone from a girl at the repair shop, apparently the tow driver was having problem locating my car and to call back with a more detailed description of it’s location, as I was about to hang-up, I received another voice messages and it was the same girl stating to disregard the 1st and that the car had been picked up after all, this puzzled me as to while she would be calling so late, and then checked the time stamped. ATT was obviously having issues, as they were both stamped for 3 hrs earlier. Since I worked over 4 hours total out of the day I was still entitled to at least a 15 min break and called Heather to let her know what was up. I was relieved about the whole situation but still we anted to see her, and tried to make plans for the night, but she knew all to well tonight was going to big a hit or miss night as it was Brian’s last night to have everything out and if things went awry I don’t think she’d want to be there for it. I understood and we made plans for the next evening as it was Friday and neither of us had to work the weekend. I went to the house to see much of Brian’s possessions still in his room. I then checked the other rooms and did a quick list of what I would need to go over again and with that I went to my new home and went to sleep.

Act 5