Jump Start
The argument started on the train, the boy convinced the girl started it, the girl convinced of the opposite. Sitting in the carriage he stared at her and she stared out the window.
‘Our stop is coming up, can’t we just leave it?’ he said.
The girl stood up and pulled her bag down from the rack above. He watched as her t-shirt lifted with the raising of her hands, exposing her midriff.
‘You can forget that,’ she said and sat down, putting her bag on her knee.
The girl went back to staring out the window. The boy went back to staring at her. The train continued its way along the tracks, relentless.
The boy’s mobile bleeped. He took it from his pocket, unfolded it.
‘It’s a text from me Dad,’ he said, ‘He’s at the station.’
The girl nodded.
‘At least we won’t have to take the bus,’ he said.
The carriage door behind them opened and a ticket inspector stepped through.
‘Tickets from Stoke and Stafford please,’ he said.
The boy fished his ticket from the back pocket of his jeans. The girl pulled a book from her bag, opened it to retrieve her ticket from where it marked her place. They both showed their young person passes. The inspector clipped an almost full circle into the edge of both tickets before heading off down the carriage.
‘What’re you reading?’ the boy asked.
She showed him.
‘Any good?’
‘It’s okay.’
The girl looked down at the open book and began to read, stuffing her ticket between pages she had yet to reach.
The boy pulled his iPod out of his pocket and stuck it on shuffle.
The girl yanked a bud from the boy’s ear as the train slowed.
‘I said, we’re here,’ she said.
Outside derelict factories stood abject, almost pleading by the side of the line. On the platform ahead a small crowd of passengers waited, shuffling closer to the edge as the train approached.
The doors opened and the boy and the girl sidled past those crowding to get in. They walked up the stairs and over the bridge to the station exit.
Outside in the car park, the boy’s dad stood smoking a cigarette.
‘Hello, you two,’ he said. ‘How’s University then?’
‘S’alright,’ the boy said and gave his dad a quick hug.
‘Busy,’ the girl said and gave him a hug too.
‘Your mum’s cooking up a storm back at home,’ the boy’s dad said. ‘Full roast. All the trimmings.’
‘Great,’ the boy said.
‘Don’t worry,’ the boy’s dad said to the girl, ‘she’s got some nut roast thing on the go for you.’
The girl smiled.
The boy’s dad opened the boot and the boy and the girl threw their bag’s inside. The boy’s dad raised an eyebrow when the boy climbed in the front with him but didn’t say anything. He put the car in reverse and checked his mirrors, watching their silence as he did.
‘Everything alright?’ the boy’s dad said.
‘You got any music?’
The boy popped the glove compartment in front of him and rooted about for a tape. He found one and stuffed it into the cassette player.
‘You need to get a new stereo for this car, Dad.’
‘I need a whole new car,’ the boy’s dad said, ‘never mind a stereo.’
The boy’s dad checked the rear view mirror.
‘You okay back there?’ he said.
‘Fine,’ the girl said and went back to staring out the window.
The car stalled at the first set of lights along the dual carriage way out of the town.
‘Shit,’ the boy’s dad said.
He turned the key and the engine whinnied before giving up. The cars behind began to feed past, the odd horn blaring. The boy’s dad tapped the hazards on and turned to them both.
‘You’re going to have to push,’ he said.
‘You what?’ the boy said.
‘The car’s been playing up these last few weeks. She’ll start fine if you get her moving.’
The boy huffed.
‘If either of you had a license then I’d push and let one of you drive.’
The girl unfastened her seat belt and climbed out. The boy followed.
‘It won’t take much to get her going,’ the boy’s dad called to them through his open window.
The boy and the girl stood at opposite ends of the boot of the car, placed their hands ready to push and waited for the lights to change.
‘Go,’ the boy’s dad shouted when the green light appeared.
The pair pushed and slowly the car began to roll forward. In the lane next to them cars streamed past at speed, some blaring horns as they did.
‘Fuckers,’ the boy said.
‘Shut up and push,’ the girl said.
The car was over the crossing when it jumped back to life. The boy and the girl stopped pushing and waited for the car to stop for them to get in.
‘I can’t stop her or she’ll stall again, you’ll have to jump in while she’s moving,’ the boy’s dad shouted back to them, the car picking up speed.
‘You’re kidding,’ the boy said, starting to jog after the car.
‘Shut up and run,’ the girl said, passing the boy and grabbing the rear passenger side handle.
The boy’s dad kept the car in first, crawling it up the road as slow as the car would allow without stalling. The girl climbed in first, sliding onto the back seat. The boy ran to the front passenger door and struggled into the seat, leg’s dangling outside for a moment, the door flapping.
‘Close the bloody door,’ the boy’s dad shouted and he did.
‘That was bloody mad,’ the boy said.
‘Yeah, sorry.’
The girl was smiling in the back seat.
‘I don’t know,’ she said, ‘keeps things interesting.’
They all laughed at this and the boy turned to say something to her but she shot a glance his way that made him stop.
They were lucky with the next two sets of traffic lights. They both remained green as they approached and the car sailed over the junctions.
At the third they had to stop, three cars back from the red light.
‘Shit and shit again,’ the boy’s dad said as the engine died.
The boy and the girl got out without a word and were ready to push when the light turned green.
Over the crossing and a little further this time the engine turned over. The boy and the girl kept running. This time both made for the back seat, he for the driver’s side rear door, she for the passenger’s.
Back in the car they sat together in silence, the space between them as large as the car would allow.
‘It’s easier getting in the back than the front,’ the boy said to the girl quietly.
‘Whatever,’ the girl said.
The boy’s dad eyed them in the rear view mirror.
‘You sure you two are okay?’ he said.
‘We’ll be fine so long as we don’t get killed pushing this scrap heap,’ the boy said.
The boy’s dad nodded.
‘I’ll try me best not to get caught at the lights again,’ he said.
The boy’s dad slowed the car on approach to the next red light on the dual carriageway.
‘Yes,’ he exclaimed when the light flicked to green as the car neared the painted white stop line.
The boy and the girl smiled at each other before remembering themselves and turning away again.
The boy’s dad managed to coax the car over two more sets of lights before a red one stopped them dead again.
‘I can’t believe this,’ the boy said as they climbed from the car again.
‘I can,’ the girl said. ‘Your dad and my dad. Both drive crap cars.’
The boy smiled.
‘Yeah, it’s amazing we don’t have to do this more often.’
The girl went to put herself on the traffic side of the car. The boy followed her.
‘You go on the inside,’ he said, ‘It’s safer there.’
The girl looked at him for a moment. They both smiled.
‘Whenever you’re ready,’ shouted the boy’s dad from the front seat.
The boy and the girl took their places and pushed the car over the crossing. They heard the engine turn over struggle and die. Both of them pushed harder, cars blaring past them. They heard the engine putter again before sputtering out.
‘It’s not going to start,’ the boy said.
They both pushed as hard as they could.
‘It’ll be fine,’ the girl said.
The engine growled to life and the boy and the girl ran for the same door, she jumping in first, he following after, rolling onto the back seat together, laughing and curling into each others arms. The boy’s dad drove on, watching over them in the rear view mirror, careful to keep the car moving, to keep them sat together on the backseat.
Dan Powell writes made up stories which have appeared or are forthcoming in the pages of Neon, Metazen, The View From Here, Litsnack and Dirty Bristow.
He goes on and on about stuff at danpowellfiction.com.
