Chapter 27

“You built this.” Not a question.

“And designed it,” Gen said.

“Your father didn’t help?”

“Nope,” said the newly arrived senior Austin as he walked in the back pass through door. “She did it all.” He was followed by Gen’s future stepmom.

Bethanne sat down at her seat in the Design Bureau and commenced scaling her new car. The Chief noticed.

“You’re building one?” Roberts asked. That got a nod. She was nibbling on her Number 5H drafting pencil ... a sure sign of frustration.

“Me too,” said David.

He asked Gen, “Where is the new batch of wheels?”

“Show me the money, mister. Wheels ain’t free.” Genevieve was rather proud of cornering the market. “It takes two bikes worth for a set.”

“Brat!” “How much?”

“Twenty-five a wheel and no guarantees. You go choose a set and you’re stuck with ‘em.”

Daddy took a Franklin out of his wallet and handed it to Gen. He started to mosey towards the pile. David had been on his legs all day and his limp was pronounced.

“Hold up, Slick ... two fronts and two rears ... and I’m watching.”

David paused and asked, “Chief, you married?”

“Divorced ... she couldn’t handle me gone.”

“Have kids?”

Roberts looked at Genevieve Austin in her role as ‘shady businessman,’ grinned, as he realized how blessed he truly was, and said, “No.” The ‘Thank God’ was left unspoken, but a discerning person could read it on his face.

“Want mine?”

A look of horror crossed Roberts face. Gen was just beginning the change ... sweet to teen.

“That’s a no,” daddy said. “Heck.”

A sly grin and Gen moseyed over to the wheel pile. She grazed. She found four matching Hodaka Ace wheels with good tires and set them aside. “I’ve got your wheels, Bethanne!”

“I’ll pay tomorrow.”

“Nah ... Daddy paid.”

Bethanne, who had been listening, cracked up.

The Chief looked at David, fumbled in his wallet, handed Miss Slyster a hundred bucks, and said, “I’m building one too.”

Gen gave him back three twenties.

“Ten each, Chief. Remember ... two fronts ... two rears.”

“Why are you charging me 40 and your dad a hundred?”

“Because he made me use my money for school clothes...” Heavily chagrined, she added, “I’ve grown. Big girls clothes are expensive ... and not well made.”

David isn’t very fast, the Chief beat him to the pile, picked out the only pair of flat-tracker fronts and a pair of Kawasaki 125 rears. Flat track race bikes don’t have brakes and their front hubs are works of art.

Daddy found two front and two rear Honda 17’s that weren’t rusty and rolled them to ‘his’ spot. His spot ... where ever the wheels stopped.

The steel tubing on the shop racks came from Zug Island’s US Steel mill. Local steel, Michigan ore, local labor. When Gen built her first two cars, she had to learn how to weld. She got the basics from the shop manuals but books don’t weld ... one has to DO it. Point 125 ... eighth inch is easier to weld than one sixteenth but five sixty fourths is lighter.

Gen spent a lot of time welding scrap to scrap. Almost half a year. She used what the books said. Rod, MIG and TIG were the weapons of choice. The day she did four consecutive welds that didn’t crack was a monumental moment.

She treated herself to an Orange Crush from the main shop pop dispenser.

It was her machine. She salvaged it from the scrap pile. When the old men started bitching about hunger and thirst, she found it, fixed it and stocked it.

Her machine ... her stock ... her profit.

MIG fluxcore was not as effective as inert gas, but she learned. TIG was not done uncovered ... she picked up a sunburn that had Daddy wondering. She didn’t do that again. Rod welding threw off sparks ... and shirts with pockets were spark catchers. One whole chapter in the Safety Book was illustrations of spark burnt chests ... and one exploded chest. No BIC’s in the pocket.

The manual wasn’t reading for kids, she read it anyway.

Genevieve Austin had been running wild in the shop for three years before she introduced Daddy to the Eighty Acre Wood.

Three summers and after school for a few hours five days a week ... she learned.

“Who knows how to weld?” she said.

The Chief raised his hand.

“How about using power saws?”

Roberts raised his hand.

“Drill press? Bridgeport?.”

In the end Chief Roberts did the welding, Daddy cut the parts, Bethanne designed the cars, Genevieve did the milling.

Bethanne turned out to be a wizard with the English wheel.

Everyone had a hand in all the cars.

They said, when asked, “Yes, I built my car.”