The Mechanic

Written for the Daily Flash Fiction Challenge with a word limit of 300.

The prompts: This story must contain the words: inheritance, alarm and shake

The Mechanic

He didn’t look up when the alarm went off.

If it was an intruder, the dogs would handle it. Otherwise, let them wait. Balancing the nitrous circuitry on these rice rockets was a task best performed without interruption. His reputation counted on this car performing as advertised.

He had a reputation of never failing – at anything.

With the job done, he went to check on his dogs.

“Yeah?”

“Mister, will you call off your dogs?”

The mechanic continued wiping his hands with a rag. He looked at the man atop an oil barrel.

“Animals sense fear,” he said. “Don’t shake so much.”

Neither said a thing as the mechanic walked around the 'treed' customer.

“What are you doing here?”

“Someone told me you were the guy to see if I needed something done.”

“I’m just a mechanic. Tell me what you need and I might know someone that knows someone.”

“My name is Newman, Fredrick Newman. Does that name mean anything to you – Mechanic?”

With a snap of his fingers, the mechanic sent the dogs off to the far side of the yard.

“The inheritance.”

“That’s right. I knew you were more than a mechanic.”

He tucked his rag into his back pocket and looked up as the man still standing on the barrel.

“I read the newspapers. What’s the deal?”

“Let’s just say, I don’t like to share. Now, who do I make the check out to?”

The mechanic reached into his back pocket. Instead of a rag, he pulled out a check of his own and handed it up to his “customer.”

“Mr. Newman, we have an interesting situation here.”

Newman’s eyes grew wide as he read the signature on the check. It was his sister’s!

He never felt a thing. The mechanic was, after all, a professional.

Word count 300



http://www.jimdillingham.blogspot.com