Paper Planes

I woke up to a lonely bed, the covers tucked in towards me.

I sighed as I thought about the previous night. I don't know what to think about Tucker anymore. I laid there for a few moments longer before putting on a pair of black jeans and grabbing one of Tucker's old baseball shirts.

It fit me snugly, which I liked. But it was still a t-shirt. I don't really have boobs, so girls shirts look kind of awkward on me.

I pulled on some socks and decided I would clean up the garage today.

I tied my hair up and started. One half of the garage was totally clear. He needed room for his car. The other half was packed.

Half of it needed to just be thrown away. Some of it could be compacted and put away. I pushed the lawnmower out into the driveway. I found a lot of trash probably from parties. Beer bottles, plastic cups, food wrappers.

I found bags of old clothes. I took them down stairs and put them in the chest.

I found a bunch of old unorganized tools. I also found a few toolboxes, all compacted in cardboard boxes, waiting to be taken out and used. I folded up the boxes and recycled them and set to organizing the tools.

I used one toolbox solely on the fishing gear he had. It was all in separate containers and took up way too much space.

I got about half way through the pile and realized that it really wasn't a pile. It was more like a shell. And it was harnessing something amazing.

A motorcycle.

Now, I know I don't know how to drive a car. But I know how to ride a bike. I had a little moped back at home. But I've ridden these before.

My cousin, the one with the guitar, he worked on motorcycles. I spent as much time as I could helping him build them and fix them up. Never cars. The roads just weren't big enough and my family just didn't have enough money. But we knew motorcycles.

This one looked like there were a few problems.

It looked to be about 125cc's. Not very big. I sat down next to it and grabbed the organized tool box.

Two hours later, I had oil and grease all over me. I found all of the tools I needed in a cupboard. It appeared that he knew what was wrong with it, he just didn't know how to fix it.

Or was too lazy.

I washed my hands and pushed the bike up against the wall closer. I brought the lawnmower back in and threw away all of my trash. I cleaned up the little mess and decided to finish tomorrow.

It was pretty late when I woke up, so I didn't have much time.

I jumped through the shower to get all of the grease and oil and dirt off of me. I dried my hair quickly. I grabbed some athletic shorts and another old baseball shirt and started making dinner.

I started making a chocolate cake, put it in the oven, started making an alfredo dish from a recipe book Vera gave me.

I cooked what needed to be done first and had a jar of alfredo sauce. By the time the noodles were done cooking, I took the cake out and placed it in the fridge.

I let it sit on the counter and put the noodles, alfredo sauce, and some steamed broccoli cut into smaller pieces in a pan and put it in the oven after it heated up from 350 to 450.

I got some icing and the cake out of the fridge and iced the cake. I put it on a circular cake dish and got the alfredo out and popped some quick garlic bread in.

I let it cool off while I set the table.

Tucker came in just in time. "Padma? Did you really clean the garage?"

"Yes," I said, as he came in the kitchen. "Why? Did you like it like that?"

"No, it's perfect. Thanks. Maybe now I'll get around to fixing that bike."

I laughed. "What is wrong with it?" I played along.

"I have no idea. My brother took a look at it and bought me the right parts. It's definitely a weekend job. Just not this weekend." he laughed out.

I laughed also. "Okay," I said, pulling the garlic bread and putting it in a basket.

I placed the pan and the basket on the table as Tucker ran upstairs to change. "Are you going to continue stealing all my shirts?" he asked me.

"As long as you continue to let me."

He laughed at me and dug in. "Dinner's awesome," he said.

"Thank you."

"Who taught you how to cook?"

"American food? I've been teaching myself. It's pretty simple. At home, I've been cooking since I was young. Women are just supposed to be in the kitchen there."

He nodded. "So Vera called today and told me to suggest to you that we get pictures taken as a couple," he said, taking another bite. Before swallowing, a look came upon his face. "I also was supposed to tell you it was my idea."

I smiled at him. "Sounds good to me."

"Cool," he said. "We can do that this weekend."

"Okay."

"Do you know what Halloween is?" he asked.

I shook my head.

"It's like, the last day of October, a bunch of kids and even people our age dress up in costumes. The point is usually to scare people. But some people just wear funny or sexy costumes or something."

"That is odd. What is it for?" I asked.

"It's just a holiday. But at night, kids go trick-or-treating. They'll come to the door in costumes and ring the door bell. You'll open the door and they'll go 'trick-or-treat'" he mimicked in an annoying voice, "then you'll throw some candy at them and they'll leave."

"That is very strange."

He laughed. "I usually go to a party with some guys I work with, but this guy I really don't like is throwing the party this year. So I mean, we'll go, but we won't stay long. But you should get Vera to take you out to get a costume."

"Are you going to dress up?"

"Yeah. I'm going as a pirate."

"I guess that is frightening. What should I do?"

He laughed. "Ah, there's plenty of costumes. You'll find one."

"And when is this?"

"Next Wednesday," he said. "So you have a whole week to get it."

"Sounds... fun." I lied. What a weird idea.

Thursday. Today I would continue working on that damn bike.

I took it outside in the driveway today as it was very nice out.

After half an hour, I was totally stuck. I tried turning it on. A puff of smoke came out of the back and oil started leaking. I leaned up to turn it off and my arm hit the side and burned me.

"Ouch!" I yelled loudly.

The guy next door came out of his garage and looked at me. "Are you okay?"

Well this is weird. "Yeah, I'm fine thanks. Just burned myself."

He nodded. "I'm Aaron."

"Padma," I said, getting up as he came over to shake my hand. "Nice to meet you."

"I haven't met you," he said.

"I just moved in with Tucker not terribly long ago," I said.

"Oh, that's nice." He looked behind me. "You know, I could help you with that. I'm a mechanic."

"Yeah? I have not worked on motorcycles as nice as this before, and I'm not doing so well at fixing this one."

"Well, I'll take a look," he said, getting down and examining the metal. He took off the part I'd been working on. Not the new piece, it was a piece that was already on there.

"See this?" he asked, pointing to a filter. I nodded. "You need a new one."

"Oh. What is it called so I can ask Tucker to buy one?"

"I've got some spares in my garage. Hold on a second," he said, running to his garage with the part in his hand. "Okay. There really cheap and I get them for free at work, so really don't worry about it."

"Thank you so much."

"It's really nothing. And you were putting this on backwards," he said flipping it over. "The filter needs to be at the back." I nodded.

"Anything else?"

He looked it over for a few moments, occasionally tapping or unscrewing then re-screwing a few things. "Nope. Everything else looks good. We need to refill those tires, though." He wheeled the bike through the grass into his garage.

He filled up the tires for me and then rolled it back over.

"Thank you so much! You have no idea how long it would have taken me to figure that out," I laughed.

"Oh, it was really no problem. It was nice meeting you Padma. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask. I really love working on bikes. I'll see you later."

"Bye Aaron! And thanks again."

I wheeled the bike back in the garage and threw a tarp over it, hoping that Tucker wouldn't notice. I smiled and ran upstairs to take a shower.

I did the laundry to watch the grease out of my clothes and make sure Tucker would have work clothes for tomorrow.

I vacuumed a little and then made dinner.

I couldn't wait until I got that bike physically looking a little better.