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Jake waves to the fire truck driver as they pull out of Doc's shop parking lot. Still in shock from seeing the building and his burnt truck ... He and Lyle headed over to talk to Doc, now that the Fire Department had left. "What did they say Doc?" " Chief said, by the time they got here, the front wall had already fell (on the truck)... Jake, he also mentioned he saw Mike Flanagan already parked across the street when they showed up"
When it comes to reading bullshit, Jake can see it from a mile away. This is why him and Mike Flanagan never got along. Any time he heard Mike saying something false, it didn't take long for him to see Mike eat his words.
The newest rumor amongst the truckers was that, "The Tahoe Mike was driving had a custom frame made by another shop in another state!" Thats all fine and good, But Mike was saying [at cruise night] that it was made by "his crew"at Flanagan Motorsports and using it like a Flagship for his dads shop. "Mike is a prick but I don't think he would burn down Doc's shop, do you Jake?" Lyle says, looking like he is doing long math in his head. " I don't know man? I don't know?" With the show tomorrow, everything that Jake worked for was gone. He lost his girlfriend and his truck and all he could think about now was, how he was going to keep his chin up at the show and how many times he would have to explain why his truck wasn't there. He started contemplating not going at all.
Soon as Lyle and Jake got back to the house, Lyle called the boys to give them the bad news, then posted a thread about Karly's burning down. The thread even had a link to a PayPal account that he set up so people could donate to Doc or Jake for all of their loss. "I don't think I'm even going to go tomorrow Lyle!"
"WHAT? ...What do you mean bro? C'mon Jake, you'll be all right!" Jake and Lyle stayed in that night talking about what happened and by morning, Lyle had persuaded Jake to go to the show and try to have some fun. As they were getting ready to leave the house, Jake received a text from his Ex girlfriend Morgan.
"I HEARD WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR STUPID TRUCK, NOW MAYBE YOU CAN GROW UP!" Jake thought to himself,This was going to be a long weird day, and concluded that Morgan was a heartless bitch. "Holy shit Jake, there is a lot of friggen people here this year dude," "ey, I have an idea Lyle, Lets park in the stall for the show... the one for the S-10... then we don't have to walk haha" "Yeah! Its in the shade too" So they got in line to IN the fairgrounds and when they got to the gate, told the security guard his stall number and name and they drove Lyle's rusted Mazda into the show and parked it in the place that Jake had reserved for his now demolished Dime.
As they got out of the truck Jake noticed that Flanagan Motorsports had a Trailer with a few rides on it next to their booth But Mike's Tahoe wasn't there? Mike's Dad was their yapping loud about something and pointed over toward Jake. As he starts to walk to the booth he stops in shock! "dude is that Morgan working their booth? Jake?" "don't do anything stupid bro" "...Jake?"
As he walks up to the booth to question Morgan he is stopped short by Charlie Flanagan (Mike's Dad) and he had a huge black eye. "hey son, you should tell your boss Doc to watch his mouth the next time I'm around!" "Look Mr. Flanagan, If you got something you need to discuss with Doc, thats on you. Second, I'm not your 'Son?" "Well, you tell him anyway! You wouldn't want anything else to happen to him right? We all know why his shop burned down!" Jake now steaming, realizes that something is fishy? "Oh yeah? Why did Doc's shop burn down?" "Karma" Charlie says with a semi drunk grin. "Karma for talking trash kid, the next time he comes to the bar swinging it may end up differently!" Morgan is pretending not to notice Jake as she folds "Flanagan motorsports" T-shirts about 30ft away in the booth.
Not wanting to deal with her or anyone at this point, Jake decided to walk around a bit by himself to cool off and look at all the finished trucks that he was looking forward to seeing this year at the show. He ran into a few people and had to explain what happened. It was sad.
As jake was wandering the lot, he saw a truck out of the corner of his eye on a trailer, It looked like old and he had never seen anything like it. It looked like some vintage mini truck that someone had brought to the show to sell? And Just then Lyle strolled up "man, I've been looking for you! Did you know that Mike Flan...WHOA ,What is that dude?" "I have no idea but its cool huh? Lets go look!" "Bro, isn't this the same kinda truck that was on the cover of Minitruckin a few years ago? Y'know that little Blue Datsun that made its way through the scene then disappeared? "Oh yeah, right, right.. GO-EZ had an army green one too ,right? What are they called?" Suddenly from behind the trucks trailer...."It's a Datsun NL320, this one is rusted to shit but she's all there, they only shipped a few thousand over to the states in the sixties" Says the owner, leaning up on truck as he tapes a FOR SALE sign on it. "Man this thing would be cool wouldn't it Lyle?" "What do you want for it?" "Well, I figured one of you boys might want to fix it up, so thats why I brought it down here" "Yeah... well, What do you want for it?" Jake says again. Oh, I figure $1000.00 will do it? ...Them Flanagan motorboys are on their way to look at it now.... She'll sell" Lyle getting antsy blurts out "forget those guys!" "Well, Money talks boys, Money talks" Jake knew he had no money and wasn't planning on getting any from the insurance company for the S-10. He slowly just started walking away and left Lyle there, talking to the guy about his old Datsun.
He knew his dream was to be here today and his nightmare had already happened. Now he was there without his ride, no cruise after the show, no talks around the engine bay, no standing by his truck during judging, no nothing. He started thinking about what Mike's Dad said to him about Doc. Something just didn't feel right. Whats more, Morgan seemed okay with it all... Happy to see him sad. He glanced up and saw two of his friends waving from the beer tent! ...It was definitely beer:30 Lyle runs up behind him "dude I was thinking the same thing!" ...."You were thinking that Morgan is actually Satan?" "haha no dude" "BEER!"
Lyle chose NOT to tell Jake about Morgan being in the bikini contest this year. He figured he had enuff crap to think about and didnt spoil his beer.
