Maxroy

The car looked like a dirty poodle, white underneath grunge with the top down, the long pursuing nose straight and intent, and hungry eyes of windshield. It was only 38 degrees with the sun just tipping over the bare February hills, but Maxroy didn't care that the top was stuck down. He did not wear a coat, he wore a threadbare cardinal t-shirt like it was any day in July and he was headed to the beach. At the first turn there was a rattle, and a disconcerting give in the driver's side door. To be safe Maxroy hung his long, brown arm over the side, so low it almost seemed like it would skim the pavement, and hugged the door to him like a blanket. He listened to the radio and rested the back of his head against the fleshy round at the top of his back, trying to look casual in his conspicuousness.

Maxroy owed a little money in exchange for which he took possession of the car, to board in his garage from the summer months until November, which was supposedly enough time to fix the roof and the door and whatever else kept it from living out of doors. His friend did no work and began dodging phone calls. Maxroy was not successful in scheduling a pick up until the sudden cold of late November had dug in its' roots, when his friend promised to retrieve the car on the first decent day. But the days remained cold with little sun, and Maxroy's charge extended its' visit.

He had always avoided debt, a habit learned from his hard working father, who preached against credit like some men hated the devil. The car, interred in his garage, became an acute reminder of the payment he owed. Every day in the long frigid winter he thought of his father, Maxroy Marcus Sr., bending the earth before him in some rich man's garden, and having never went to bed a day in his life owing a cent to anyone.

The weather hadn't broken, but it had thought about it, and that was close enough. Maxroy got up and found the keys, and didn't bother calling his friend to give fair warning. He looked forward to when he could hand off this albatross like a receipt for a debt paid, and walk away without looking back. Maxroy held the car from shaking to bits the whole way, and thunderously drummed his fingers on the dash staring up at every red light.