V8 of Eights – Introductions

A parallel universe – Never Drink and Drive… with a V8

Luna thought that Harold was an uncomfortable nerd lost in a sea of cool students. Harold didn’t have a lot of money but was making the best of this unlikeliest of opportunities. The college town was a mix of locals trying to get by and rich college students partying their way through.

Most students had parents with significant wealth. Traveling around town in Uber instead of cabs was the norm. Public transportation was a first class ticket flight back home. Not for Harold.

His 1970 era car was Harold’s primary mode of transportation to and from classes, as he didn’t have the means to live in the dorms. His scholarship covered his education.

Working a patchwork of jobs, Harold managed to rent a garage from a sweet old couple who shared his passion for classic cars. No one knew that Harold slept in the same space as cars did. No one needed to know that he was scrapping to get the degree that would launch his life out of poverty.

It was just the same, Luna was another bombshell beauty that would never understand him, Harold thought. No matter how he dreamed of it, getting a date with Luna was not going to happen. She was out of his league.

One night, during another post game celebration, Harold worked extra hours at the local bar. The students were drinking up the victory with their hero players. Harold shook his head. These students were unaware that the services were being provided by one of their own.

For some reason, an argument broke out. Fists flew. Tables were tossed. Bouncers earned their keep and Harold knew he had more work to do before getting home to study. Cleaning up the bar was his job, made more difficult by the rowdy brawl of alcohol fueled jealousy.

Some guy thought another was hitting on his date, the other felt the date was fair game as she was not a girlfriend. A total mess that cost the establishment a lot of money. However, those drunken students had families with rich lawyers… the bar had no choice but to accept the chaos… as part of the cost of doing business with affluent drinkers.

Later that night, as Harold dropped off the trash bags in the dumpster, a sound drew his attention. Looking about, a pair of headlights illuminated the empty lot next to the bar. The owner had purchased the plot of land and left it unkempt. It served as overflow parking for the bar whenever a celebration took place. On rainy days in the spring, the lot became an expensive muddy trap. The owner didn’t mind, as his other business was a towing company.

Harold, not thrilled with the practices of the owner, kept his opinion to himself for the sake of keeping his good paying position. This lone set of headlights was at the far corner of the lot. The engine periodically revved up timidly and would quickly return to idle whenever the tires broke traction.

Feeling badly, as the nature of this timid approach sounded like a scared driver, Harold hurried up and finished his shift. Upon leaving, Harold was surprised to still hear the timid efforts to get out of the field. Most guys who frequented the bar, and had their own cars, were very aggressive behind the wheel when traversing the mud. Most all other patrons used Uber.

Taking a walk across the lot, Harold noticed that the fancy Tahoe was buried nearly axle deep in the mud. The interior light came on for a brief moment.

Luna.

Harold was glad that Luna didn’t spot him. His heart ached horribly. If the owner was called, the bill would be super high. The grounds were sufficiently water logged that getting out would not be easy. This situation was epic spring mayhem.

Knocking on the window, Harold hoped to draw Luna’s attention without startling her. Luna jumped. Very scared. When she recognized who was outside her car, Luna rolled the window down.

The tears on her face moved Harold.

“Can I help you?” Harold asked timidly.

“I don’t know” a tired Luna explained.

The young men had been arguing about who had ‘control’ over Luna. When she had insisted that she was not someone’s property, the men had gotten together to ‘punish’ her. Three of the guys had massive trucks with off-road tires. They had teamed up together to tow her Tahoe to the back of the field where the water had soaked the dirt and made it muddy. In panic, Luna explained, she had tried to pull away and lost the tug-of-war punishment. Now, she was trying to find traction to get free.

“I won’t ask how long you’ve been here, let me see what I can do” Harold said.

“Why are you being nice to me?” Luna wondered out loud.

In the area, most service employees were not willing to be helpful of rich entitled youth. These rich kids were tolerated as an income source but their party antics soured the opinions of the locals.

“I could walk away and let you call a towing company if you’d like” Harold instantly regretted his snap response.

“Fair enough” Luna replied.

Harold looked about for some makeshift shovel. It was a bad situation. With lots of digging efforts, Harold eventually made a clearing where he placed wood planks for traction. With fingers crossed, he instructed Luna to give another try.

The Tahoe gingerly found traction and climbed out of it’s hole. With freedom seeming in sight, Luna pressed the pedal more confidently. The Tahoe responded by waddling about and spitting up clumps of grass and mud everywhere as it slowly made progress out of the lot.

Once free, Harold expected the fancy SUV to speed off into the night, as was the custom of all these rich damsels in distress. Hanging his head down, he made his way toward his car down the block… grateful that he had not parked in the lot.