Date: Sat, 21 Oct 1995 21:28:46 -0500 Reply-To: Samantha Anne Copeland Sender: Highlander TV show stories From: Samantha Anne Copeland Subject: Daddy's Little Girl part 07 Daddy's Little Girl Samantha Copeland copelasa@vuse.vanderbilt.edu ******Part 7****** Once outside Chris's jaw dropped. "Oh wow! A classic T-bird! And he's going to let you drive it?" "Well, he did give me the keys. So I'd take that as a yes." They got in. Richie tried to start the engine but he couldn't seem to get it to turn over. "You're doing it wrong," she stated flatly. "What's there to do wrong? You turn the key and it's supposed to start. That's all there is to it." "Not on these older cars. They're meant to be started with the gas pedal partially depressed. Since you've already tried a couple of times, it's probably flooded. Try again, only this time floor it as you turn the key. When it starts let up, but not completely. Give it a chance to warm up or as soon as you put it in gear it'll die." "Just how do you know that?" "You'll see." Richie could tell from her expression that he wasn't going to get anything else on that topic out of her and gave up. He started the car as she had instructed, and it worked. * How the heck does a girl know about old cars. Stop, I don't even want to think that. If she's trying to set up Mac, rules or no rules, I'm going to try and stop her. * Of course he should have known about how to start the car. But he so rarely drove the car he had forgotten a few of its quirks. As he was putting the car into gear, he realized that he still didn't know which garage they were headed to. "Chris, exactly where are we headed." "Oops, sorry 'bout that. Ace Body Shop, you know where it is?" "Yeah, I know the place, Mac's taken this car there a few times. Come to think of it, they only service classic cars. Is that how you knew about how to start the car?" She just grinned back at him, she was in a sugar induced 'I'm trying to be cute' kind of mood, and something about Richie made him an easy target for her witticisms. "So, what kind of car is it?" "It's a 1967 Mustang." "Sweet! So is it a convertible or hard top?" "It's a hard top." "O.K. so what color is it?" "It's a sort of electric blue with a black vinyl top." "That sounds really nice... Hey, am I going to have to pry every little detail out of you?" "I'm sorry, I'm not really good at carrying on conversations. Not to mention, I tend to get a little shy around guys I don't know very well." "That's O.K., just sit back and enjoy the ride. I'll get to see the car soon enough." "O.K." They rode in silence with only the radio breaking the completeness of the silence. Ten minutes later, they arrived at the shop. Chris's car was parked in front. It appeared to have had a wash, making it look even better than it had when it had gone in. Now it was Richie's turn to let his jaw drop. "You can stop drooling now. Now if you would be so kind as to pull up to that space next to the office." "Sure." Richie parks the car in the space. One of the guys in the office came out to admire the car. Chris got out of the car and stepped into the office. When she saw the bill she was glad that she had slipped her checkbook into her jacket pocket, her credit limit would never have covered it. Though none of the parts had cost over $150, little things add up, and in this case, to $967. She got the receipt, and went out to her car. Richie had gotten out of the T-bird and was admiring the Mustang. With the exception of Mac's car, he hadn't seen many older cars, and this one was a beauty. It had only a few dings and scratches that faded if you stood more than 6 feet away. "The person who restored it did a beautiful job, don't you think?" Chris asked. "Yeah, the interior looks good, no rips or tears, looks like those are new seats. Very authentically done, with the exception perhaps of the CD player." "Well, that's my own personal touch. I don't have alot of tapes and I don't normally listen to the radio, so I replaced the original AM / Cassette radio with the Sony. I made the face mounting myself since I couldn't find any sources for CD bezels." "Looks like a real nice piece of work. How'd you do that?" She shrugged, "I've always been good with my hands. I took a few measurements and just kept sawing and sanding until it would fit in the hole." "Looks like your persistence paid off. So, you think we ought to get going?" "Yeah, you're probably right. You go on ahead back and drop off the car, I'll catch up." With that Richie said good-bye and left. Chris on the other hand, circled the car a few times to see just what damage had been done to the car. The only indication of the incident was a slight warping of the body above the right rear tire. Since it was only warped and not creased, there was no immediate need to get any body work done. She then opened the trunk and took out the two hubcaps that had popped off. She looked at each of them to figure out which one had gone where. She finally decided that it really didn't matter, and just popped them back on. With that last little piece of maintenance done, she got in the car and headed back to Mac's. Due to a few traffic lights Richie hadn't gotten all that far ahead of her, so she decided to show off a little. Even though she had a slightly less powerful engine, her car was lighter, so the physics of it said that they each had an equal chance of it. She managed to catch enough green lights that she closed distance quickly. The light Saturday morning traffic had certainly helped. Within moments she pulled up alongside Richie, he stared back at her blankly, she grinned back at him like a Cheshire cat, and floored the gas. In only a matter of seconds she was several car lengths in front of the T-bird. She changed lanes to be directly in front of Richie. At the next intersection, she squeaked through, Richie didn't. She knew that it was childish, but secretly, O.K., maybe not so secretly, she was proud of herself. From the things MacLeod had told her about what she was, somehow she didn't think that she would be in the mood to 'be a kid' for much longer. She had always been more mature than most of her classmates, and yes, technically she was still a kid and from the look of things she always would be. She did have one advantage, even though she was a few months short of her nineteenth birthday, people had sometimes mistaken her for 23 or 24, that would certainly give her a lot of flexibility. Of course she had a while yet before she would need to worry about any of that, or so she hoped. _____________________________________________ If you are missing a part, go to my web page. I really enjoy reading the "fan mail" that I have been getting, but I just don't have the time to fill all the requests for past installments. If you don't have web access, write me, otherwise, please go to the web site. Comments are always welcome in my box. If there is anyone else who wants their story archived, for whatever reason, I'm considering adding a section for other people's stuff as well. Samantha copelasa@vuse.vanderblit.edu http://www.vuse.vanderbilt.edu/~copelasa/girl.htm =========================================================================