Storymania - Q by Don F Vaccarino

Q (1)
Don F Vaccarino

Chapter One

The motor on the Austin Martin was shot again.
“What can we do with this thing Fergy?” asks Art.
“Well the pistons are shot, the cylinders are scored and the crank shaft is bent too,” he answers.
Q inputs, “As long as the block is OK. We could bore it out a little larger, to repair the scoring. The pistons and crankshaft have to be replaced.” Fergy says, “We could use those old cylinders from the tractor. They are just a touch larger than the originals.”
“They are a lot bulkier too,” says Art.
“That’s great,” says Q. “They can take more abuse than the lighter ones.”
“OK,” says Art. “We can see what they have in the junk yard tomorrow,” he continues. “Tonight I have a date with Patty.”
“I thought her name was Peggy,” says Q.
“It was, last week,” says Art. “Tonight it’s Patty.”
“How are you going to get anywhere?” asks Fergy referring to the fact Art’s automobile was broken.
Art walks over to the other side of the barn and pulls the cover off the 1941 Stuts Bearcat.
“That looks like Mr. Ferris’s car,” says Fergy.
“It was,” answers Art. “He bought a new one yesterday,” he continues. “Looks just like this one, except its silver, and has a lot more horse power.” “Just think of the possibilities,” says Q.
“Not again,” says Fergy.
“Why not?” says Art. “Big wheel Ferris has been picking on Q since the fifth grade,” Art continues.
“You must have done something, Q,” says Fergy.
Q grins with the memory.
“The carnival was in town, and my parents said we could go the first nice day, it had been raining most of the time,” Q begins. “The first day of school was on Wednesday, and the carnival was leaving Saturday morning. According the weather service, Friday was supposed to be sunny and mild. I borrowed my dads old alarm clock, it lost an hour every twelve. I wasn’t worried about that. I rigged up a string and pencil to drop a sharp steel compass point on a balloon filled with rotten egg liquid. I set it all up Thursday after school. Ferris was suspicious when he saw me take all my books home. The rest of the kids were only taking one or two home. I set the alarm to go off around 4:00 in the morning. An hour one way or the other didn’t matter.”
“When we got to school Friday morning, the janitor and Mr. Ferris were sending everyone home, except me. We covered our faces with handkerchiefs and went to check my locker. When he saw my handy work, he made me spend all day, and most of the next, cleaning the locker, and moping the floors. Every kid in school got to go the carnival except me.”
“Well I want to go to lovers leap with Peggy,” interrupts Art.
“I thought it was Patty,” says Q.
“She will do too,” answers Art. “Come on,” Art continues. “I will give you guys a ride home. Fergy, try to keep your greasy hands off the seats,” Art continues.
The car is white with white interior. Art drives them home, travailing at 10 kilometers over the limit. On the way, Mr. Ferris flies by them on the highway. Fergy saw the look on his face as he passed.
“He thinks he owns the road,” says Fergy.
“He thinks he owns the world,” says Art. “Well what kind of tricks do you have up your sleeve this time?” Art asks Q.
“I’ll work on that tonight, and let you know,” says Q.
“I’ll help,” says Fergy.
When they get to Q’s house, Fergy gets out too. He lives just one farm over.
“Were you serious about helping?” asks Q.
“Sure,” says Fergy.
“What can we do to his car without damaging it?” Q asks.
“Last summer, my Uncle Jake forgot to take his truck off the jack stands. When he went to drive away, the wheels just spun. My folks laughed their heads off,” says Fergy.
“Won’t he notice the back of the car in the air?” asks Q.
“Not if we dig holes for the tires to fit into,” says Fergy.
“The school board has a meeting next Friday,” says Q. “Ferris is always the last one to leave. We will have at least a couple of hours to set it up,” Q continues.
“I will bring the shovels and the old jack stands that the petrol station is throwing out,” says Fergy.
“Great,” says Q.
Fergy heads for home.
The next morning Art picks them up at Q’s house after they finish their chores. They are headed to the junk yard.
“What do we need to buy,” asks Art.
“New piston rings and a crankshaft,” answers Fergy.
“We could ask Mr. Goodman if he knows where we could get the block honed,” says Q.
“The station has one we can borrow,” Fergy answers. “I used it last month to fix dads tractor,” he continues.
Q tells Mr. Goodman the correct size of piston rings they need, while Art and Fergy rummage around the junk yard. Fergy is like a kid in a candy store, he loves all the junk. After Mr. Goodman orders the piston rings on the phone, they head outside to look for the crank shaft.
“I think there is one that will fit your car in the trunk of that old Bentley over there,” says Mr. Goodman.
After admiring the Bentley for a while, Fergy and Art head around back to look at the crank shaft.
“Is that the right one?” Art asks.
“That’s it,” says Fergy.
“We will take them,” says Art.
“Them?” asks Mr. Goodman.”
“Yes,” says Art. “The Bentley and the crank shaft. How much?” asks Art.
“Ten bob for the crank shaft, and fifty pounds for the Bentley,” says Mr. Goodman.
“Here is the ten bob,” says Art. “The fifty pounds I will bring later when we tow this beauty home.”
“I will move the other stuff out of the way, and make sure there is air in the tires for you,” says Mr. Goodman.
“We will be back after lunch,” says Art.
On the way to the Petrol station, Q asks, “What are you going to do with the Bentley?”
“Three things,” answers Art. “A shop project for Fergy, a body finishing project for me, and a great set of wheels for us to use on dates.” “How are you going to get a date for me?” asks Fergy.
“Just tell the girl she gets to ride in the Bentley,” says Art.
“With a shop project like that, you guys should get some good grades for a change,” says Q.
“Exactly what I thought,” says Art.
“Right after you thought about using it for dates,” says Fergy.
“Yea,” Art admits.
When they reach the petrol station, Fergy goes in to borrow the honing device.
“Is it all right if I add a little science project to the Bentley?” Q asks. “What did you have in mind?” asks Art. “How about a radio telephone?” asks Q. “Sounds great,” says Art. “It will look good, even if it doesn’t work.”
“Oh, it will work,” says Q.
Back at Art’s barn, Fergy and he worked on the engine block, while Q worked on the phone idea.
Q asks, “Fergy, do you think we can get your aunt at the switchboard to help us out with the Autophone idea?”
“Sure ,” answers Fergy.
Art asks, “You can’t be serious?”
Fergy answers for Q, “He doesn’t kid around, when he says he can do something, he does it. Even if it takes months,” Fergy continues.
“This will only take weeks,” adds Q. “The range will only be a few miles from the telephone station,” Q continues. “It will take up the whole glove box too. The only problem is no one will be able to call you, you will have to call them.”
“That’s even better,” says Art. “Can we hang the head set on the dash in full view?” he asks.
“Absolutely,” answers Q.
A short while later Fergy announces, “We are done for now. We can’t do any more till we get the piston rings.”
Q speaks, “Mr. Goodman says they will be in on Tuesday.”
“Well then,” says Art, “Lets get cleaned up and see what my aunt has for lunch for us.”
Art’s parents died several years ago when the ship they were on was hit by an iceberg. They left him well off financially, his father’s sister, Art’s favorite aunt, lives with him in their small castle. It is shaped like a castle, but it is an extra large six bedroom colonial house made of stone. It is the largest home in Cliffview, it has ten fireplaces.
Before his father died, he had installed the first indoor bathroom in southern England. They could afford servants, but Aunt Millie prefers to do everything for herself.
“What’s for lunch Aunt Millie?” Art asks as they enter the kitchen.
“I made a big batch of your favorite soup,” she answers.
Q and Fergy have had this soup before, and loved it too. It is just fresh made vegetable soup, with large chunks of vegetables, served with fresh baked bread. The boy’s make short work of lunch, they left just enough so Aunt Millie could have some too.
After lunch, Art went upstairs to raid his cash box.
Art speaks to his Aunt, “I found the perfect auto to bring you to the store, and church Aunt Millie.
“That’s nice dear,” she replies. “Does it have a real roof this time,” she asks.
“Yes,” he responds. “It will have a telephone too,” he adds.
“That’s nice dear,” she speaks while cleaning up the lunch dishes.
“Let us help with those,” says Fergy.
“Oh, no thank you,” she responds. “I won’t have anything to do if I let you do these for me. Now run along and play, and stay out of trouble.”
Art gave her a kiss good-bye and we headed for Mr. Goodman’s place with a tow rope. Mr. Goodman had the Bentley all ready when they got there. He even put a couple of used tires in the trunk, no extra charge. After he paid Mr. Goodman, Art had Q and Fergy pull the Bentley while he rode it back to his barn. They weren’t sure how good the breaks were, so Fergy kept it under ten kilometers per hour.
When they got back to the barn, Aunt Millie used some hot chocolate chip cookies as an excuse to come out and see the Bentley. She almost broke into tears when she saw it.
“I’ll get rid of it right now if it makes you unhappy,” says Art.
“On the contrary,” she says. “That looks just like the one your Uncle Eric used to have six years ago. I was just remembering all the fun we used to have in it,” she reminisced. “It was stolen while we were at the service when he and your parents died in the ship,” she continued.
She looked inside and saw the heart Eric had carved into the wood dash with their initials in it.
“It is!” she exclaimed.
They all got back into the Stuts Bearcat and went to see Mr. Goodman. Art asked him where the Bentley came from.
“The police dropped it off about a month ago,” he said. “It was found abandoned in town, and the tags were all removed,” he continued. “They put an add in the paper, and when no one claimed it, they told me to get what I could for it and give the money to the orphanage.”
Aunt Millie was so happy, she gave Mr. Goodman another fifty pounds and said, “Give this to the orphanage too. I can’t wait for that car to be fixed,” she told the boys.
“We will start on it as soon as we get back home,” says Art.
They became so engrossed in fixing the Bentley, Mr. Goodman had to drop the piston rings off at Art’s home while they were in school. After dinner on Friday, they were in the barn working when Q remembers.
“It’s Friday!” he says.
“So what about it?” says Art.
“We almost forgot about the school board meeting tonight,” Q says.
“I didn’t,” says Fergy. “The shovels and jack stands are right outside. “Good,” says Art. “I have a new camera to test out as well,” he continues. “We need a picture of Ferris’s face when his car won’t move.” When they got to the school, they rolled his car a few feet forward, then dug the two holes where Q had marked them around his tires.
Then using an old tire they brought with them they placed it in the holes to make sure they were deep enough.
Then they put some boards over the holes and rolled the car back. After they placed the jack stands under the axle, they pulled the boards away. The tires dropped into the holes just right. Then Art brushed away their foot prints. They barely made it out of the parking lot when the meeting was over. Art thought better of taking a picture with the flash attachment, so they just watched from a behind a bush.
When Ferris put the car in gear and let out the clutch, nothing happened. The wheels just spun. He took it out of gear and put it back in again, the same results. Ferris took a flashlight out of his glove box to have a look. First he checked under the hood. Then he muttered to himself, what am I looking here for, the motor is running fine. When he got around to looking at the back tires, he threw the flashlight to the ground in a fit of rage.
The boys wished they could have gotten the picture. The look of horror on Ferris’s face was perfect. Art had to hold Fergy’s mouth shut, he was laughing so hard. They went around the building to Art’s car after Ferris went in the school to call for help. On Saturday morning, the car was still in the parking lot. Some time between then and Sunday morning they got it out. It was gone when Art took his Aunt to church.
You would have thought a guy like Art, always going out with a different girl, wouldn’t go to church. That is where he met most of them though. The ladies would introduce their daughters to him and his Aunt. They must have thought he was a good boy, taking his Aunt to church. Art loved his Aunt, and would have brought her anyway. Meeting the girls gave him two reasons to bring her.
The time spent working on the Bentley went fast. By the end of the second week it was running. Art must have spent over three hundred pounds on repair parts. The breaks, steering, and suspension were all new. Fergy replaced most of the engine parts too.
Q got the interior looking almost like new, and the Autophone was ready to try. He had put a two way radio in the glove box. He mounted a telephone hand set to the microphone and ear piece. It was hanging on the dash next to the on and off switch. Then Q proceeded to teach Art how it worked.
“The unit has a matched set of transmitters and receivers,” he began. “This allows both parties to listen and speak at the same time, just like the regular telephone. You will want to leave it off when you are not using it, and the motor is off. It will drain the battery too much.”
Then they had to teach Fergy’s Aunt how to run the other unit from the telephone station.
“This receiver is on all the time,” says Q. “When you hear Art speak on it, you can answer him with this microphone. He can tell you the number he wants to call, then you will have to dial it for him,” he continues. “When you get the party he is calling, you plug his line into the one he is calling. This completes the connection, and they can have a normal phone conversation. You will have to listen to the conversation, and disconnect them when they are finished talking.”
Because it had to use two lines to work, Art had to pay for an extra phone line.
When it came time for the grades, all three boys got an ‘A’ for the work they did. Q got an ‘A’ plus, for the Autophone. It turned out that someone in the USA had patented it the week before he made his. Art was allowed to keep it, but Q was not allowed to sell them.
Aunt Millie loved to just sit in the car in the barn and remember.
Big wheel Ferris was still in pain from the ‘car that wouldn’t move’. He was sure it was Art and Q who did it, but he couldn’t prove it. That didn’t stop him from making their lives miserable. He tried to get the teachers in with him to bring their grades down, but that didn’t work.
Next he tried to blackball their chances of getting into college. Art and Q were going to the local university, Fergy was excepted into the training academy for Rolls Royce! Art could afford a top notch school, but wanted to stay with his friends. Everyone knew he didn’t want to leave his Aunt alone.
After they foiled Ferris’ plans to screw up college for them, the boy’s decided to get even with him again.

Chapter Two

Q came up with a brain storm.
“Lets put this new spray for protecting the cars finish to some good use,” he says.
He had invented a spray on coating to protect his fathers tractor in the winter. The stuff washes off with a mild solvent in the spring.
“If we put it on your Stuts Bearcat, it looks the same color as Ferris’s car,” says Q.
“So what good is that?” asks Art.

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