Luc nodded as they headed outside. He opened the door to the cab. Keys in the ignition. Luc hopped in and started it up. It died. Luc pulled out the choke and tried again. It died. Luc checked the oil and fuel levels and tried a third time. It caught, ran for a few seconds and died again. “Dammit!” said Luc as he climbed out of the cab.
Cal had already lifted the engine cover off and was looking at the engine. “Geeze, what he do to this thing?” he asked. Luc looked over his shoulder. The wiring harness was covered in tarry goo. Hanging just off the edge of the oil filler tube was the oil cap. Oil had burped everywhere. Other things were messed up too that Luc could see.
“Cal, can you fix this?” he asked.
“Yeah, general mechanics license. Where are the tools?” he asked turning back to the building.
Peter was headed towards them with a tool box. “I’ll get it fixed,” he said.
“Peter, give Cal a chance,” said Luc.
“It was my responsibility, I’ll fix it,” said Peter. His body posture was beginning to go defensive. He knew he should have checked on it a week ago, and kept putting it off.
“No, Let Cal fix it,” said Luc with a touch of sub-vocals.
Cal backed off and Peter’s shoulders slumped. He put the tool box down by the backhoe and headed back to the building.
“Um, Luc, I didn’t mean to start any trouble,” said Cal softly.
“You didn’t. Just do your work and remember who’s boss,” said Luc. Luc then headed back to the warehouse. He found Peter and tapped him on the shoulder.
“Hey, cool the temper Peter,” he said.
“Sorry boss. Just that I should have taken care of it and…” Peter trailed off.
“It’s okay, just let Cal get his feet wet. You can see who’s got the bigger set of balls later,” said Luc. “Besides, we may need all the males we have if Ginny rips our heads off.”
“Don’t I just know it. She chewed my ass for a whole hour the other day. Surprised I have anything to sit on,” said Peter as he pointed at his ass.
Luc nodded. “I have a few numbers to call, and Cal there has a cousin.”
“Here’s hoping,” said Peter.
Luc smiled and headed back into the office building.
*
When he got to the office, Ginny had a stack of messages for him to return. She was holding court in the front office and Luc had no plans of disturbing her. He looked towards Meg’s office and saw the door closed tight. What a day, and it was only 10:45am.
Luc went back to his desk and started working on the messages. He called the numbers that Sandy had given him only to find out that one guy was married and the other out of town. Here’s hoping Cal’s cousin isn’t a washout,” he thought.
Luc got lost in the paperwork and startled when Meg walked into his office. “Hi Meg,” he said.
“Hi yourself. You so engrossed in paperwork you didn’t hear the fight?” she asked.
“What fight?” asked Luc.
“The one Kevin said was going on out in the warehouse,” said Meg.
Luc stood up and looked out his window. He didn’t see anything. “Would you care to go outside with me?” he asked as he headed to the door.
“Sure, as long as we go out the back way and can avoid Ginny,” she said.
Luc nodded and headed out the back door. Meg followed and soon they were in the warehouse. They looked around and no one was to be seen. A few boxes were out of place, but no fight. Luc headed back towards the backhoe. There they found Cal and Peter both looking worse for wear working on the engine.
“Is everything okay you two?” asked Luc.
“It is now,” said Peter. As he turned to face them, they could see he was sporting a black eye and he had a bloody lip.
“Yes sir,” said Cal. When he turned to hand a wrench back to Peter, Luc and Meg could see that Cal had a black eye, his nose was swollen and both sets of knuckles were scraped up.
“Geeze!” said Meg. “What the hell set you two off?”
“Oh, the normal thing. Who has the bigger set of balls, who’s faster, stronger, bigger. All the normal stuff,” said Peter.
“An don’t forget who’s got the best mechanical skills,” said Cal.
“Yeah. You fix the damn machines, and I’ll deal with the inventory,” said Peter.
“Sounds good to me,” said Luc. “Glad you two got things worked out fast. Oh, and Cal, don’t forget to call that cousin.”
“No sir!” said Cal from the depths of the engine.
*
Two days later, Luc came back from a client to find Meg out at the front desk. No Ginny either.
“Okay, why are you babysitting the phones?” he asked.
“I got tired of Ginny growling and yelling at everyone so I sent her home,” said Meg.
“Um… how did you do that?” asked Luc as he looked over his mate.
“I just remembered what she told me and started channeling that inner bitch. She had Kevin in tears and she broke the phone when she slammed it down. So, I came out and told her to go home. She didn’t want to and I said if she wasn’t gone in five minutes, I was calling Jeff and was going to ask him to bring the tranquilizer gun. She started to yell at me and then just shut her mouth and went home,” said Meg.
Luc tried not to laugh, but the giggles leaked from the corners of his mouth. Then the belly laugh started. “Oh Meg, let’s never fight,” he said between laughs.
“Nope, don’t even want to go there,” she said.
Kevin and Cal came around the corner to see what the noise was. They smiled when they realized that it was Luc laughing.
“Damn that sounds good,” said Cal.
“Yeah. I’ve had just about enough of Camp Hell this week,” said Kevin.