As soon as the door had closed behind him, Santiago smiled at Danny.
“Please, take a seat,” he suggested, with a smile. “It is good to see you again. It’s been too long.”
Santiago could see that Danny was still on guard.
“We might as well get this out of the way now,” Santiago continued. “I would like to know about the vehicle.”
“It’s not mine, but I’m borrowing it for a while, and it needs work done. So even though it doesn’t technically belong to me, it’s my car. It’s the car I’m using. The car I depend on,” Danny explained.
Santiago paused and waited for further information, but Danny did not continue.
“I apologize for my rude greeting earlier,” Santiago began again, from a different angle. “You must appreciate how this looks to my other customers, who, in some cases, had to wait for years before getting their first appointment. When they see you drive up in an automobile that is not your own, how do you think they feel? They feel that I am unfair. Trust is the cornerstone of my relationship with my customers, so this is an issue. I would like to know how to resolve this.”
Santiago rubbed his temples for a moment.
“The easiest thing would be for me to kick you out. That would make the other customers value their relationship with me more highly. But you know that’s not what I’m going to do, because that would be unfair to you. Please, I ask for your assistance. Explain to me why you have brought this problem to me. I know that you would not do this without a good reason, but I do not know what that reason is.”
Danny was confused.
“Do you think your customers–the people in the waiting room–will know that this isn’t my car?”
“Without question.” Santiago rolled his eyes and sighed. “Didn’t Cherry tell you to park in the back?”
“There wasn’t anywhere to park back there. The lot was full,” Danny replied.
“Regrettable. In any case, some people undoubtedly thought that this car was not your own from the moment you drove up. A man of your age and profession, driving a car known to be popular among young, single, professional women? A red car? Tell me, are you the kind of person to drive a car that color? And the fact that you couldn’t figure out how to lock it, and pressed the trunk release instead of the lock, well, that’s a giveaway.”
Danny shrugged.
“This is not a car that you would willingly buy, cannot rent, and are obviously unfamiliar with. People will notice, and people will talk,” Santiago concluded.
“Do people notice things like that?” Danny asked.
Santiago considered his answer. “Some people do not. Maybe most people… but the people who do notice are the people whose opinions I value the most. People who pay attention to the details are important, because details are important.”
Santiago paused for a moment, and consulted a scrap of paper covered with hand-written notes before continuing on.
“Let me tell you who I think this car belongs to, and then you can tell me how much I get right. Based on a cursory examination of the contents of the passenger cabin, this car does belong to a woman. A short woman, slender woman, certainly of Asian ancestry and probably Japanese, who owns a small female dog, perhaps a schnauzer, with grey hair, which she walks regularly on the Fenway. She has horrible taste in popular music, but good taste in classical music. She is between the ages of thirty and thirty-five, lives alone and considers herself single, but has been involved in several emotionally significant relationships with men during the last several years, most recently to a divorced professor, who has a daughter approximately her age. Given her age, and the fact that she attended the same college where you taught, I think you might have known her for some time. And perhaps she has a thing for professors?”
Despite his attempt to show no reaction, Danny’s eyebrows rose, slowly but uncontrollably, during this recitation, like a helium balloon escaping from the grip of a young child.
“You can tell all this, just from things you can find in her car?” he asked.
“Elementary, my dear Frenelli,” answered Santiago, grinning with obvious pleasure.
“The preset on the seats, the hairs from her and the dog, the fact that only one seat in the car shows much wear at all, the pre-programmed radio stations, the collection of CDs and tapes, things like that,” continued Santiago.
“But all her age, and where she went to college, and all that other stuff–how?” asked Danny.
“Ah, that sort of information cannot be learned in such an easy way. No, that requires the latest technology.” Santiago paused for a moment, leaving Danny in suspense. “You know, like on those CSI television shows?”
Danny shook his head. Danny didn’t watch much television.
Santiago laughed. “Danny, don’t overlook the obvious! Her registration, complete with her home address, was in the glove box. She has a facebook account, a MySpace account, and Friendster account, and according to Cherry, an account on something called ‘Plenty of Fish’, whatever that might be.”
Danny let out a brief laugh. “Well, she has an active social life, I know. Maybe she has a thing for professors–I don’t know. But I don’t think she has a thing for me. I think I would have noticed by now.”
Santiago looked serious again. “Perhaps, perhaps you are overlooking the obvious again. But let us deal in the concrete. I know who you are. And I know something about who she is. But I want to know whether you think that there is any, how shall I say, relationship between the two of you.”
Danny shook his head. Santiago did not release his look.
“It could never work, you know,” he continued. “You are not the cheating kind. The guilt would kill you. If Mary didn’t kill you first, of course. But sometimes men are stupid. Especially the men who are smart, and who reach a certain age, and who wish to prove that they are still young. Oh, such stories I could tell you. None with happy endings, though. None.”
Danny said nothing for a moment, and then found voice.
“It isn’t like that. We’re just friends. It’s a long story, but it’s not a complicated story. Not complicated that way, anyway.”
“But here you are, having repairs done on an automobile that belongs to a young woman who is not related to you by marriage or blood. And so we return to my original question. Please tell me why you are doing this.”
Danny could see no escape except the truth.
“She’s moving to California next week. She wants to take the car. I’m driving it across the country.”
“You are driving across the country with her? That could be so easily misinterpreted, Danny. So easily.”
“No. I’m driving across the country alone.”
It was Santiago’s turn to raise his eyebrows.
“This is an enormous favor that you’re doing for her. A grand gesture?”
“No. This is about me. When I found out that she was going, I asked if I could drive her car. Originally there was some thought that maybe we’d drive across the country together, but it didn’t work out that way.”
“So, she teased you with a promise of a cross-country jaunt, and then reneged, leaving you to do all the work yourself? And you are going to go through with it anyway?”
“I can understand why you might think that, and perhaps I’ve been manipulated, but if so, then it was done flawlessly. I’m the one who convinced her that she didn’t want to make the drive, and that I could do it alone. I’ve always wanted to drive across the country, but I don’t think she’d be a very good traveling companion.”
“Oh?”
“Her dog is a complete pain in the ass, and her taste in music–all music–is unendurable. And her main topic of conversation is her problems, which are numerous. There’s no way I could put up with that for three thousand miles.”
Santiago looked bemused. “Any other reason?” he asked.
Danny looked at a poster hanging over Santiago’s desk–a still from “The African Queen”.
“Yes… there is one other thing. When men and women spend a lot of time alone together, emotions can develop. She’s a very attractive woman. I was afraid that I’d do something stupid, given enough time and opportunity.”
“Yes, that is a common occurrence. But as long as you are afraid of doing something stupid, in my opinion, you are probably safe. The men I know who cheat do not think that they are doing something stupid–they believe that they are doing something clever. Maybe sometimes they are. But it would not be clever for you, with such a wonderful wife and family.”
Santiago shifted his position, leaning in towards Danny.
“But yet, you are fond of this woman?”
“Yes, you could say that. But not that way.”
“I’m sure Mary is glad that you’re not driving across the country with her.”
Danny laughed. “Yes, but maybe not for the reason you think! She is more worried that I’d leave Madoka and her dog in a shallow grave by the roadside after about three days than that I’d have an affair.”
Santiago smiled.
“So, why all the work on her automobile?”
“Because I don’t want to get stuck in the middle of nowhere without snow tires. She isn’t much of a believer in regular maintenance, or snow tires, for that matter.”
Santiago clicked his tongue disapprovingly.
“Anyway, the work is for me. She won’t need snow tires much in San Jose.”
Santiago reached across his desk, picked up his phone handset, and dialed an extension.
“Cherry, please tell Charlie and Ernest to give Mr. Frenelli’s car the Robert Edwin Peary service, and to please make it their first priority. Yes, this is more important. Thank you.”
Santiago replaced the handset and looked again at Danny.
“So, you’re just going to drive across the country for the hell of it?”
Danny smiled. “Yes, that’s just about it.”
“It sounds like fun, maybe. An interesting way to spend the holiday.”
Santiago shrugged, and continued. “I’m sorry if I seemed a little forward. I suppose that the holiday stress is getting to me. That, plus the damn Gusterfield coming up.”
