Thunder and Lightening
Chapter 17
By
Lazlo Zalezac
Copyright (C) Lazlo Zalezac, 2004

As the smell of coffee filled the house, Bill came staggering out of 
his bedroom rubbing the sleep from his eyes and yawning with a 
muted roar. Despite being sleepy, he had been looking forward to 
this day for a long time. At long last he was getting his cast 
removed. He glanced in the kitchen, not wanting to go into the cold 
room but it was difficult for him to resist the coffee and the French 
Toast. 

Bracing himself, he went into the kitchen and sat down at the table 
where Jerry had set a cup of Coffee and plate of French Toast for 
him. Looking over at this father, he said, "Today's the day."

"Yes, it is." This was his day off and he had plans to be busy the 
whole day. Those plans included taking Bill to school and then 
picking him up to take him to the hospital to have the cast 
removed. 

"I'll be so glad to get this off," said Bill as he looked at the cast. It 
was covered with signatures and witty remarks. The kids at school 
and in the neighborhood had signed the cast to show their support. 
Although Bill wouldn't say it, the signatures meant a lot to him. 
Last year, he wouldn't have been able to get even one.

The pair ate breakfast, each thinking their own thoughts about the 
day in front of them. Monday's were the best school day of the 
week for Bill. That was the only day of the week that he didn't 
have to get to school early so that his father could get to work on 
time. It meant a hot breakfast and no time spent in the library. 
Usually, the time spent after school included some sort of father 
son activity. Last week it had been a movie. The cast put a damper 
on the kinds of things they could do together.

Bill finished first and took his plate to the sink. He rinsed it off so 
that it would be easier to wash. Going back to the table, he grabbed 
the cup of coffee and headed to the bedroom to get ready for 
school. He would be ready in plenty of time to make it to school.

Jerry pulled away from the school after waving bye to his son who 
was joining his friends outside. His first stop was going to be 
picking up a new scooter for his son to replace the one that had 
been lost the night of the great storm when he had driven over to 
the house. He was looking forward to seeing the look on his son's 
face when he was presented with the new scooter. 

He turned on the radio of the truck. It was an AM radio with the 
old fashion mechanical knobs. As the drone of talk radio filled the 
air of the cab, Jerry drove along taking the scenic route that took 
him through older neighborhoods with tree covered lanes. The 
highway would take him a quarter of the time, but he wanted to 
enjoy the morning. 

Everything was fine until he reached one of the few busy 
intersections. When he stopped his truck at the traffic sign, an 
older model Toyota driven by a woman putting on her make-up 
came up from behind him and passed without even slowing at the 
stop sign. As the car ran into the intersection a Saturn hit her 
broadside behind the passenger door.  The crash was thunderous as 
glass and metal flew through the air.

Jerry watched in disbelief as the events unfolded in front of him, 
appearing to him as if everything was moving in slow motion. 
Automatically, he turned off the engine of the truck as he reached 
for his cell phone. He had made the call to 911 even before the cars 
had finished spinning. 

Carrying his cell phone, he left the truck to see what he could do to 
help the occupants of cars involved in the wreck. Before he had 
closed the door of the truck, an SUV crashed into the Saturn. Jerry 
froze, concerned about entering the road as other cars came to 
abrupt stops with a squealing of tires.

When the 911 operator came on line, he started telling her what 
was happening. Even as he spoke, others were leaving their cars to 
render aid. As he described the situation to the operator, he 
realized that he was totally clueless about how to help them. He 
answered the questions of the operator even as sirens screamed the 
message that all was not well. 

The first official car on the scene was a police cruiser and Jerry let 
the operator know that the police had arrived. After a minute, he 
hung up the phone satisfied that he had done what he knew had to 
do to help the situation. When he went over to the police cruiser to 
wait, a fire truck pulled up to prevent fires from breaking out. With 
the arrival of officials, many of the people that had rushed to 
render aid returned to their cars. 

Jerry knew that as an eyewitness, the police would want to 
question him so he waited out of the way of the action. It seemed 
to take a long time before ambulances started arriving. He watched 
as a number of firemen gathered around the Toyota trying to get 
the door open to get access to the woman inside. 

Watching, he realized they were going to have a very tough time 
getting the door open. He headed over to help. With each step, he 
recalled the words and insults thrown at him by his ex-wife trying 
to wake the rage inside. The rage, surprised to be called upon, 
responded and he could feel his muscles swelling with power the 
closer he came to the car. A low growl emerged from his throat, 
catching the attention of the rescuers. Under normal conditions 
they would have moved to stop him, but they backed away upon 
catching sight of his red face, throbbing vein in his forehead, and 
the angry expression on his face.

Reaching the car, he put a foot against the crumpled backdoor and 
grabbed the door. Ripped metal tore through the skin on his palms, 
turning his hands a dark red. With a roar, he pulled on the door 
lifting his body off the ground as he put every ounce of his weight 
and all of his strength into removing it. The sound of metal ripping 
cut through the air shocking all those watching him. His roar 
intensified as he pulled off the door and then lifted it into the air 
before throwing it onto the ground.

Once the door was off, he staggered back away from the car and 
collapsed on the ground as his strength drained from him. The 
stunned silence was broken when a fireman said, "Fuck me!"

Another fireman said, "I'll cancel the call for the jaws of life."

Resting on the ground with his knees in the air and crossed arms 
on the knees, Jerry leaned forward to rest his head upon his arms in 
a picture of complete exhaustion. Closing his eyes, he breathed 
heavily trying to recharge his body. A weak trickle of blood 
dripped from his hands onto his pants. 

One of the ambulance personnel came over and knelt next to him. 
Tapping him on the shoulder, the man said, "Let me take a look at 
your hands."

Jerry held out his hands, flexing his fingers, for the paramedic to 
examine his palms. There were several cuts in the fleshy part of his 
palm, most of them were insignificant although one cut had sliced 
a small vein. Jerry said, "Give me a minute to catch my breath."

The paramedic said, "It will require two stitches to fix the 
bleeding. We'll give you a ride in the ambulance."

Jerry shook his head and said, "I'll drive my truck. I still need to 
talk to a policeman since I witnessed the whole thing."

"You weren't involved?"

"No, I wasn't," answered Jerry as he looked back towards his truck 
wondering if he was going to have a chance to drop it off to be 
painted today. 

"You sure looked angry at the woman in the car," replied the man 
as he recalled the expression on the face of Jerry as he marched 
towards the car just a few minutes ago.

"Had to get angry to get the door off the car," replied Jerry as he 
dropped his head forward again. He could feel his strength 
returning slowly but surely and he felt a strong desire to drink a 
glass of orange juice.

One of the policemen came over to take his statement while the 
paramedic wrapped the hand to last until he made it to a doctor. It 
was a relatively short story and Jerry was finished telling it by the 
time the paramedic told him that he was done working on the 
wound. 

Jerry left the area to head to the hospital, but stopped at a corner 
clinic when he realized he could get the stitches there. It would be 
a lot faster than driving all the way to the hospital and waiting for 
others that were in more desperate shape than himself. It only took 
thirty minutes to get his hand cared for by the doctor at the clinic. 

Leaving the clinic, Jerry checked his watch and saw that it was 
almost eleven in the morning. He had planned to purchase the 
scooter by this time. His little scenic drive had ended up costing 
him two hours. There was no sense complaining about it, so he 
headed directly to the Honda shop. 

The salesman remembered him from his first visit to the place. It 
didn't take long for him to pick out a new blue scooter for his son. 
This time, Jerry wrote a check to pay for it rather than take out a 
loan. He was still making payments on the first scooter and only 
had three more months to go before the loan was paid off. 

After loading the scooter into the back of the truck, Jerry called 
Martin. When the young man answered, Jerry said, "Hey, Martin. 
I'm heading to the house now. I need to change clothes and then 
we can get your Caddy from the auto detailing shop."

Irritated at the delay in picking up the car, Martin answered, "I've 
been waiting here for two hours. I was beginning to think that you 
had forgotten me."

Jerry said, "I'll explain when I get there."

The drive back to the house didn't take long and Martin was 
waiting in the front yard for him holding the brand new license 
plates. Jerry could understand the young man's impatience. The 
restoration of the Caddy was finished and he hadn't seen it since 
they had towed it to be painted. After the painting, it had been 
towed to an auto detailing shop to get the interior redone. They had 
installed new carpets on the floor, new seat covers, and new roof 
liner. They were also supposed to repaint the interior and replace 
the dashboard. 

Pulling up to the curb, Jerry got out of the car. Martin let loose a 
loud whistle when he saw the bandages on his hands and the blood 
on his pants. He asked, "What in the hell happened to you?"

Picking up the scooter from the back of the truck, Jerry grunted, 
"There was an accident and they needed the door taken off a car."

As Jerry sat the scooter on the ground, Martin asked, "And so you 
pulled the door off?"

Pushing the scooter to the house, Jerry answered, "Yeah."

Shaking his head in disbelief, Martin followed his neighbor up to 
the door of his house, giving him a hand in lifting the scooter onto 
the porch. After watching how easily Jerry lifted the scooter, 
Martin could believe that he'd rip the door off a car. Martin asked, 
"So did that save someone?"

"I don't know. They were waiting for the jaws of life," replied 
Jerry. He didn't know if his actions had helped or not. He hadn't 
even thought to ask the paramedic about it. 

Pushing the bike into the center of the living room, Jerry looked 
around deciding that he would leave it there for Bill to discover 
when they came home that night. Martin looked over the scooter 
and said, "Nice. He's going to like it."

Jerry went into his bedroom and, as he changed clothes, replied, 
"Yeah. I hope he likes it. I know he hasn't said anything, but he 
thinks that I'm angry with him for losing the first scooter. Hard for 
him to realize that I was happier that he got away from his mother 
who would have killed him. I think that scooter probably saved his 
life and the fact that he lost it doesn't matter a bit."

Martin called back, "Well, he'll enjoy riding it around here. You do 
realize that we'll never see him and Abe again."

Jerry laughed as he pulled on a clean pair of pants. He called, "I'm 
not worried about that. I think the two boys get along just fine and 
help keep each other out of trouble."

"Are you kidding?"

Jerry's laughter filled the room as he buttoned his shirt. "Okay, so 
the cast kept them out of trouble."

He slipped on his shoes and left the bedroom. Smiling at Martin, 
he asked, "Are you ready to see your car?"

"I've been ready to see the car since the first day that we started 
working on it," replied Martin. There had been delays as they had 
searched for a new dashboard. The plating company had waited for 
replacement knobs. He could only imagine how the car looked.

"Let's get out of here," said Jerry as he opened the door.

The drive over to the auto detailing shop seemed to go by fast for 
Jerry and slow to Martin. When they pulled into the parking lot, 
Martin practically jumped out of the truck before it was stopped to 
find the Caddy. Jerry watched with amusement as Martin walked 
past the Caddy not recognizing the car. Jerry walked around the 
Caddy examining the paint job and looking inside at the detailing. 
The car looked like it had just been driven off the showroom floor. 

Martin asked, "Where is it?"

Jerry said, "Here."

"Damn! That's fucking incredible," replied Martin as he looked 
over the car. When he had last seen it, the paint was flaking, the 
roof fabric was torn and weathered, and the interior was rotten. 
Looking up at Jerry, he said, "Is this really the same car that used 
to be parked in front of our house?"

"Yes, it is," answered Jerry seeing the pride at a job well done 
filling Martin. The young man stood up straighter as he walked 
around the car. 

Martin opened the car door and looked at the interior. Everything 
was clean and polished, sparkling as if it were new. His eyes 
watered at the thought that he had brought this about. Looking over 
at Jerry, he said, "Let's pay and get out of here."

"Sure," replied Jerry. He went to the truck and picked up the 
license plates. He had forgotten to bring a screwdriver to attach 
them and hoped that they could do that for him.

The pair went inside and talked to the man that had done the work 
on the interior of the car. Harold had re-upholstered the seats and 
was waiting for them inside the office. Standing up with a smile, 
he said, "Well, what do you think of it?"

"It's better than I ever could have imagined," answered Martin still 
looking out the window at the car.

The man noticed the license plates that Martin held in his hands 
and said, "Let me have one of the guys in the back put them on 
your car."

Handing over the license plates, Martin turned to Jerry and said, 
"My momma is going to be so proud to see that car."

"Yes, she will."

Martin looked down at the bill and said, "It's not as much as I 
thought it would be."

"It adds up though," replied Jerry. Martin had already written 
several checks to pay for the parts, paint job, and chrome plating. 

Looking back out at the car, Martin replied, "It was worth every 
penny."

Harold returned and Martin proceeded to pay for the work 
performed. Jerry walked around the office at the pictures on the 
wall of some of the cars that had been restored in the past. He 
noticed that the Caddy appeared in one of the pictures and smiled 
knowing they had done a first class job on it. He turned when the 
man said, "I had a customer in that was willing to pay twenty-five 
thousand for your car."

The amount was a lot higher than Jerry had expected. Martin 
asked, "Twenty-five thousand?"

"Yep, I thought that was a pretty good price," replied Harold with a 
smile.

Having driven the car to the hospital, Martin knew that the car was 
impractical for modern size parking spaces. He answered, "I'll have 
to think about it for a couple of days."

"There's no need to hurry. This coming Sunday, there's an antique 
car show in front of city hall. You might take it up there and see 
what kind of offers you get."

Martin thought about the chance to show off the car to an 
appreciative audience and nodded his head. Looking over at Jerry, 
he said, "I just might do that."

Martin followed Jerry to the auto paint shop enjoying driving the 
Caddy. He felt ten feet tall as he maneuvered the car through the 
streets. People pointed at the car, surprised to see the classic car 
moving through the traffic dwarfing the other cars around it. 

Jerry pulled into a parking spot in front of the shop. The owner, a 
guy by the name of Eddie, came out and looked over the truck. 
Shaking his head, he said, "Nice job on the bodywork."

"Thanks," replied Jerry as he patted the truck on the hood. 

Eddie walked around the truck examining it carefully. After his 
first circuit around the vehicle, he said, "Nice. The bed needs to be 
replaced, but that won't be too difficult. The metal strips will have 
to be painted. A good finish on the wood would really make the 
exterior shine. I've got a guy that can replace the bed. He'll stain 
the wood and seal it real good. Would you like me to have him do 
that?"

Jerry had intended to do that himself, but after thinking about it he 
said, "Go ahead. I think that Thunder could use a couple of special 
touches here and there."

"Thunder?"

"Yeah, that's the name I've given the truck. I bought it the same 
night that I was blown off my feet by the thunder of a lightning 
bolt that hit just a few feet away from me," answered Jerry.

"I take it you aren't going to sell it when you're done fixing it up."

"No way," replied Jerry.

Eddie walked around the truck for another circuit as he looked at 
the work. He checked out the interior and asked, "You going to get 
the interior done?"

"You bet. When I'm done with this truck, it is going to be the finest 
looking car on the road."

Martin smiled and looked over at his car thinking that he could 
argue that point. Eddie looked over the car trying to imagine how 
he would paint it if given a free hand. He had done a lot of 
business with Jerry's shop over the years. He rubbed his chin and 
said, "I'll make a deal with you."

"What?"

"I'll give you a custom paint job for the same price as a simple 
paint job if you let me sign the work," replied Eddie. He added, 
"Leave it with me and I'll take it over to get the chrome plated and 
then over to the detailing shop. I'm sure they'll give you the same 
deal if you let me sign their work too."

Jerry knew that Eddie was very good at his job. That was why he 
brought the car all the way across town rather than a place that was 
closer to home and cheaper. If Eddie was willing to sign his work, 
then that meant he had something really special in mind for the 
truck. Knowing that he'd be a fool if he let that opportunity pass 
him by, Jerry extended his hand and said, "Deal. Take real good 
care of Thunder for me."

Eddie smiled and shook hands with Jerry. With a broad grin, he 
said, "I'll see you Sunday when you come to pick it up."

"So quick?"

"Yep. I want you to show it off on Sunday. There's an antique car 
show down by city hall. Come down there and pick it up when the 
show is over," said Eddie with a grin. He could see the finished 
truck in his mind and knew that it would outshine anything there.

Martin looked over at Eddie and said, "We'll be there. I'm showing 
off the Caddy."

Eddie said, "That was a real pleasure to work on. You guys did a 
great job on that one too. Are you selling it?"

"Yes, I think so. It's just a little too big to drive around the city."

"Yeah, you're right. That one belongs with a collector. You'll get 
top dollar for that. Fully loaded like that, a lot of collectors will be 
interested," remarked Eddie.

"It's almost too nice to sell," replied Martin.

The pair left the shop with Jerry getting a ride with Martin. On the 
way to the house, they stopped at a restaurant to get a bit to eat. It 
was well after lunchtime and the men were hungry. Martin had a 
hard time finding a spot to park the Caddy and ended up having to 
take up two spaces in a spot where he would have plenty of room 
to back out. The back end of the Caddy stuck out four feet more 
than any of the cars around it. 

Getting out, Martin said, "Sure is a big ass car."

"Looks sharp, though," replied Jerry with a smile. 

As they walked over to the front door, they passed an elderly 
couple that was leaving the diner. The old man said, "Look at that 
old car. Reminds me of the one we had years ago."

"I sure did love that car," replied the woman. 

 Martin smiled and went into the diner feeling proud of his work. 
They sat down at a table, reviewed the menu, and ordered their 
lunch. After the waitress delivered their coffees, Jerry asked, "So 
how do you feel?"

"I feel great," replied Martin. It was odd, but he was feeling 
something that he had never felt before. It took him a long time to 
identify the feeling. It was a sense of accomplishment. He had 
taken a rusted old hunk of metal that had become home for a rat 
and turned it into a thing of beauty through hard work. "I feel 
really good."

Jerry smiled at the difference he was seeing in the young man 
sitting in front of him. Before they started working on the cars, he 
tended to think of him as a kid. Now he saw a man that had learned 
an important lesson that would carry with him for the rest of his 
life. He said, "I'm glad. You did a really good job on that car. You 
should be proud of yourself."

"I'm going to buy a camera today and get some pictures taken of 
the Caddy."

As the waitress set their burgers in front of them, Jerry shook his 
finger and said, "You really ought to get a professional 
photographer to take a picture of it. That's a great looking car and 
you could probably get the picture published in a car magazine."

"You think so?" The idea was surprising.

"Yes, I think so," replied Jerry as he started to put together his 
burger. He wondered as he piled the onion on top of the lettuce and 
tomato if he should have gotten the chili-cheese burger. He liked 
them, but they tended to give him gas.

The idea of publishing a picture of his Caddy was very attractive. 
Martin was silent as he thought about the suggestion and tried to 
imagine opening a magazine to find a picture of the car. Smiling, 
he said, "Yeah. That would be nice."

Jerry waited in the Camaro for Bill to get out of school. It didn't 
take a genius to know when school let out as kids came pouring 
out of the building en masse. It usually took Bill a little longer than 
the other kids as he struggled to carry his books with one arm in a 
cast. When the initial flood of kids let up, he spotted Bill coming 
out the door. Bill looked around for a minute before spotting the 
car. With a broad grin, he waved and headed directly to the car. 

It was nice to see his son that happy on school grounds. On the 
way to the car, Bill turned at the sound of a shout from his friend 
and waved to Woody. Rushing, he made it to the car and climbed 
in. Happy, he said, "I’m ready to get this cast off."

Pulling away from the curb, Jerry asked, "Where are your books?"

"I'm ahead on my homework and can take the night off," replied 
Bill with a grin. He had worked all of the problems in the chapters 
they were covering in class over the weekend just so that he could 
enjoy this day. "So what are the plans for tonight?"

"Well, I thought we'd hit the Chinese Buffet and then head home 
for a nice quiet evening," answered Jerry. 

The plans under-whelmed Bill since he was expecting something a 
little more exciting for the night. He asked, "So did you take the 
truck in to be painted?"

"Yeah. We picked up Martin's Caddy. You'll want to see it 
tonight," said Jerry.

"I don't see how good it could be. It didn't look all that great 
before," remarked Bill. It was true. The body had been a 
patchwork of different colors as rust spots had been removed, 
dents fixed, and missing metal replaced. They had even replaced a 
door that was a different color from the rest of car. The top had 
been in shreds and discolored from years under the brutal 
punishment of weather. The interior had been ripped and decayed. 

"You'll see," replied Jerry. In a way, this would also be a good 
lesson for Bill. A young man needed to see the consequences of 
what hard work could accomplish. He explained, "I think you'll be 
impressed. Martin worked hard to rebuild a solid base. Sometimes 
that base doesn't always look great, but when you do the finishing 
work the attention to detail taken on the base shines through. You 
can't hide the flaws of a bad base."

"I never thought about it in that fashion," replied Bill thoughtfully.

"I think the same thing goes for people. You're young yet, but 
you've been injured real bad. I don't mean your arm. I mean your 
spirit. With a little hard work, we can repair the damage that's been 
done to you by your mother." Jerry was quiet for a moment and 
then continued,  "I'm a lot older though and I've been hurt a lot 
more than you. The damage is a lot deeper. For me, it's going to 
take a lot of work and I can only hope to repair some of the worst 
parts of the damage."

"Are you saying that we are damaged goods?" asked Bill rather 
upset that his father saw him as a flawed young man. The idea hurt 
him more than he could put into words.

"Yes, I am," replied his father. He glanced over at his son and 
could see how upset the boy was getting. He added, "Do you 
remember how things were a year ago?"

"Yeah. They pretty much sucked," replied his son.

"That's right. You didn't have a friend in the world. You were a 
mediocre student and hated going to school. It was seven hours of 
misery that you just barely survived for five days a week. Most of 
the time you were angry at the world around you. Your family life 
sucked with a mother that valued Melissa more than she valued 
you. Hell, you had a father that only yelled at you." Jerry paused to 
glance at his son seeing that the young man agreed with him. He 
continued, "What about now?"

"Things are a lot better," replied his son recognizing the 
differences that twelve months had made in his life.

"That's right. You have four very good friends. Your grades are 
outstanding and you are participating in school events. Hell, you 
haven't been in a fight since the second day of school. I don't think 
you've been all that angry the last few months."

"True," replied Bill. There were a lot of other positive things in his 
life. He was wearing new clothes now. His father treated him like 
an adult, allowing him to drink coffee in the morning and asking 
his advice at times. He missed the scooter, but that was the only 
real negative in his life.  

"So I'd say that we are rebuilding the base. You're a lot happier 
person today," replied Jerry. 

Bill sat in the car and thought about it for a while. He glanced at 
the bandages on his father's hands and wondered what the story 
was behind them. He hoped that his father hadn't lost his temper 
again. Recalling that his father had said that his case was even 
worse, he asked, "What about you?"

"Me? I've undergone even more changes than you have. It's been 
rather painful at times. I used to dislike going to work and hated 
going home. I lost my temper on almost a daily basis. Today, I 
needed to lose my temper and actually found it rather difficult. 
You might not believe this, but I had never had a friend until I left 
your mother. Now, I'm on good relations with the people that work 
with me. I count Abe and Martin as friends. I really enjoy my time 
spent with Henry Buckman. Hell, I even have a girlfriend. Most 
important of all, I found that I had a son that I truly like and love." 

Embarrassed at the emotional element of his father's comments, 
Bill changed the subject, "You had to lose you temper today?"

For the rest of the drive to the hospital, Jerry told his son about 
witnessing the accident and what he had done. If anyone else had 
been telling the story about ripping the door off a car, Bill wouldn't 
have believed that such a thing was possible. Having seen some of 
the things his father had done in the past, he knew that his father 
had told the truth.