A voice inside his head screamed, I stayed on this planet far you! 1 blew my one chance to go back to the place I came from. For you! But Michael put his hands down and said, as calmly as he could, "Okay.”

She was silent for a moment, looking at him with a sur- prised expression. When she spoke, her voice was calm. "Look, I'm just not sure what I want right now.”

"There's a surprise," he muttered under his breath.

"What?" she said.

"Nothing, but understand this: I know exactly what I want, and I will wait if I have to," Michael said.

She looked at him with the same surprised expression. Well, he was surprised at himself. But he did know what he wanted, and he was determined to break the cycle of stupid arguments that had kept them apart too many times in the past.

"I'll wait," he said, then he pointed to the diner door.

"Maria, you'd better get back to work. We'll come by before your shift is up. Don't go outside until then.”

He took a moment to enjoy her stunned expression, then turned and headed back for the garage.

Kyle found Dan in the office.

"I just have to check the seals and add the fluid, then I'll be done with the transmission," he said. "What's next?”

"Points and plugs on the Impala. And check the brakes. They've been grinding. They'll need pads, but see if you can save the rotors. I have to stop in town. I'll be back in about an hour," Dan said.

Kyle nodded, "I'll be fine.”

"I'll keep an eye on him for you," Dawn said, flashing Kyle a smile.

Kyle could barely keep the goofy grin from his face. When did my luck start changing? he wondered.

He nodded to Dawn on his way out and said, "See you later.”

"You know it," she said.

As Kyle entered the garage, he was glad his back was to Dawn, because he lost the battle with his goofy grin, which spread itself wide across his face.

A few seconds later, he was back under the car, doing a quick inspection of the seals on the transmission. It took some effort for him to concentrate on his work, but he forced himself to do it.

"Hey, I want to talk to you," a voice said from above him.

It took Kyle a moment to place the voice. He was immediately annoyed at the interruption, because it ended the warm feeling that lingered from his encounter with Dawn.

"I'll be up in a few minutes," Kyle said. He would actually be less than that, but the last thing he wanted to do was to let Gomer think he would rush on his say-so.

"We'll talk now. You don't have to get up," Gomer said. "I just wanted you to know that Dawn is my girl.”

Kyle shook his head. This was ridiculous. "Funny, she didn't mention that," he replied.

"Well, I'm mentioning it," Gomer said.

His voice was tight, as if he was trying to intimidate Kyle. Well, Kyle was not going to be intimidated by this bad-tempered tow truck driver who worked at a shop in the middle of nowhere.

Nevertheless, Kyle was very conscious of the fact that while Gomer was standing on the shop floor, Kyle was flat on his back with less than a foot of clearance between himself and the car above him.

Kyle knew guys at the garage who didn't like to work under cars, either out of claustrophobia or a vague fear about the safety of the hydraulic lift that held the car off the ground. Though he had never had that problem himself, Kyle suddenly understood it. He considered sliding out from under the car, but he didn't want to give his nervousness away and give Gomer the satisfaction of thinking he had shaken Kyle up. Keeping his voice casual, Kyle said, "I think Dawn's big enough to decide what she wants for herself.”

Kyle heard Gomer make a sound like a grunt. When he spoke, he shouted, "You got a smart mouth. You want to watch that. We don't much like smart guys around here.”

"Then you must fit right in," Kyle shot back immedi- ately.

Gomer didn't reply, but Kyle heard footsteps and a click. Leaning his head up, he could see Gomer's legs were very close to where Kyle's legs were hanging out from beneath the car.

Suddenly Kyle didn't care whether or not Gomer thought he had gotten the better of him. Kyle didn't want to spend another second under this car with Gomer up there.

Since Kyle was lying on a wheeled cart, he could roll out in a second or less, if he rolled toward where Gomer was standing.

He couldn't go the other way, because the transmission lift and some other equipment were blocking his way. He could try to angle himself and roll out next to the lift. It would put the car between him and Gomer when he got clear, but that would take several extra seconds at least.

He decided to just face Gomer. Reaching up, he grabbed the underside of the car and pulled, moving the cart and himself toward Gomer.

Then something came down on his leg. It took Kyle a moment to process that fact that it was Gomer's foot.

Kyle's forward motion stopped.

"Where you going, smart guy," Gomer said.

Kyle felt his heart sink in his chest, but he was surprised by the strength in his voice when he said, "Let go, Gomer.”

Instead, Kyle felt more pressure on his right ankle.

"What's wrong smart guy? Scared?" Gomer said.

"This isn't funny," Kyle said.

Then Kyle heard a click and he immediately knew that Gomer had his hand on the lever that controlled the hydraulic lift's up-and-down motion.

"Yeah, I think it's pretty funny. You know, you should be careful under there. I don't think these things are safe. If something happened, you might hurt your smart mouth," Gomer said.

Then the car lurched down two inches in a sudden motion.

"Ahhhh!" Kyle said, forgetting completely about his dignity. Frantically, he tried to move in any direction, but Gomer kept up the pressure on his leg.

Kyle tried to calculate how much clearance he would have between this car and the floor if it dropped to the ground. How much damage would the car do to him? Would Max be able to fix it? He decided he didn't want to find out. "Wait. Let's talk about this," Kyle said.

"I don't want to talk to you, smart guy," Gomer said, then he laughed. The laugh was low and creepy. Kyle decided he didn't like it at all. Then Kyle heard another click.

11

Michael heard the shouting from inside the garage. Maria’s talk about the kidnappings or whatever was going on in this town had gotten under his skin more than he had expected.

On the other hand, that was true about a lot of things that Maria said and did.

"… much like smart guys…" Michael heard from inside as he passed the entrance to the garage. The words didn't exactly make sense, but the tone was very clear.

Somebody was pretty pissed off.

Michael debated checking around the back to see if the others were all right, but he was confident that Max and Isabel could handle most of the trouble they could find in this town. Then he remembered that Kyle would be work- ing inside the garage. It might pay to check in on him.

Walking through the large door, he didn't see anyone inside at first. Then, three cars down, he saw someone he recognized.

Gomer was standing next to a car, shouting down… at the tire? No, that wasn't right.

Then someone spoke back to Gomer, but Michael couldn't make out the words.

"What's wrong, smart guy?" Gomer said.

Michael decided he didn't like the tone of Gomer's voice and started walking toward him.

Where was Kyle? There was some more back and forth, and Michael thought he heard Kyle's voice. Then Gomer grabbed a lever, and the car seemed to shake in the air.

Then he heard a scream.

Sure that the scream was Kyle's, Michael started run- ning. He saw that Gomer had his hand on a lever. And then he saw Kyle's legs sticking out, one of them kicking at Gomer. When Michael saw the car move downward, he realized instantly what was happening.