Laura Ray (Ray Series) by Kelley Brown Page A

it to a mechanic for a checkup.” Laura said feeling helpless.
    “Have you ever thought about taking it to Arthur, Mary’s brother to look at it? He opened a shop in town,” Harold suggested.
    “Oh, okay. I had forgotten. At least, I sort of know him. Sure. Where is his shop?” Laura stammered.
    “He’s on Third and Mill Street on the west side of the road.”
    “Thanks, I’ll go by and see him,” she promised.
    As she drove the short distance to the station, she noticed that the car was driving better since the man put oil and water in it. She pulled up in front of the mechanic shop that had a sign printed on the door ‘Art’s Auto’ and walked in. A large counter covered almost the length of the room on which sat an old cash register. Behind the counter on the wall three calendars hung portraying almost naked women in bathing suits. A few keys hung on some nails along with some more rags. A greasy transmission lay on the floor to the side and some other unknown objects to her.
    When Arthur walked in he saw her standing there clutching her purse to her stomach looking all around as if she had walked into another planet. “Hi,” he said with a smile. “Harold said that you might come by.”
    “Right,” Laura said as if unsure of herself. “Uh, my car isn’t running well. I hope you can fix it. The man at the station said it needed to be checked out.”
    “Well, if you want, I can take a look at it. How long has it been since it had an oil change?”
    Laura shook her head. “I haven’t done anything to it. I hope I haven’t ruined it.
    Arthur laughed, “ I doubt that. When can you bring it in?”
    “I don’t know. I have to work every day except Saturday and Sunday.”
    “Would Thursday work for you? I can go to your job and pick up the car and bring it back before you get off. If not I will take you home myself. Would that work for you?” Arthur suggested.
    “Well, I guess that would be okay,” she said slowly as she thought about it. “I don’t want to cause you any trouble.”
    “Not at all. I do this for people all the time,” he said with a smile.
    Thursday morning , Laura left the keys under the mat as Arthur directed and went to her machine to start her first bundle. She had been making quota for a while but didn’t seem to improve beyond that, but she felt pleased that her wages had increased considerably as soon as she reached that level. As usual Lori Mae sat there at her machine popping her gum. Laura spoke but, of course, Lori Mae looked the other direction and didn’t hear her.
    During the day she heard Lori Mae complain to the woman who distributed the bundles, “You give more small bundles to Laura than you do to me.” Lori Mae believed that it was more work and harder to do large and extra-large, which it really was.
    Laura didn’t really know if she got more smalls than Lori Mae so she kept her mouth shut and kept working. She was almost to the point that she shuddered every time she came to work and sat down beside her. Another contention which Laura would never reveal was that their names were so similar. How could Laura be compared to Lori Mae? Yuk!

 
     
     
     
    Chapter Eight
    Arthur stood outside of Cherokee Togs waiting for Laura to come out after work. He knew he should have been done with her car by now, but this seemed to be his best shot at getting a chance to visit with her. When he came home from his twenty year stint in the military, he wanted to settle down in Pryor to be near Mary’s family, especially his nephew Aaron.
    Art, as he had been known ever since he left home, and his wife had not ever had children, not for lack of wanting them though. They had never used birth control of any kind. After a few years she found that she had come down with uterine cancer. By the time the she was diagnosed, it was too late. He saw his beloved wife’s life slowly decline until she became nothing much more than bones with skin stretched across them. She passed