My car made a noise.
I took it to a large repair chain. They gave me a printed estimate for two thousand dollars. It was itemized. It had a barcode. It looked extremely legitimate.
I showed it to an American.
He read it for four seconds and made a sound with his teeth.
Then he said, "Don't do that."
I asked what I should do instead.
He said, "Go see Sal."
Sal has no sign. Sal operates out of a building with no name on it, on a street with no other businesses, behind a chain link fence that is always open.
There is no website. There is no phone number that anyone answers. You simply go there, and Sal is there, and Sal has always been there.
Inside I said: THE MAN HAS NO BANNER AND NO GATE AND YET EVERY HOUSE IN THIS PROVINCE KNOWS THE ROAD.
I drove to Sal's. There were nine cars in the lot. Nine. On a Tuesday. With no advertising of any kind.
Sal listened to my engine for eleven seconds.
He did not connect a computer. He did not look at my paperwork. He put his hand flat on the fender and listened, the way a physician listens to a chest.
He said, "Sensor."
I asked how much.
"Hundred forty."
I showed him the two thousand dollar estimate.
He read it. He handed it back. He said, "They're not wrong."
They're not wrong.
He would not insult them. A man with no sign, being handed the paperwork of a national chain, declined to say a single bad word about it.
He said, "They gotta replace the whole assembly. That's their rule. I just replace the sensor."
Inside I said: HE DID NOT CALL THEM THIEVES. HE EXPLAINED THEIR CONSTRAINTS. HE DEFENDED THE MEN WHO WERE ABOUT TO TAKE MY MONEY.
He fixed it in forty minutes.
I asked how he learned this.
He said, "My dad."
I asked if his dad was still around.
He pointed at a chair in the corner of the garage. An old man was sitting in it, doing nothing, watching.
He had been there the entire time. I had not registered him as a person. I had registered him as furniture.
Inside I said: THE MASTER SITS IN THE CORNER AND SAYS NOTHING AND THE SON IS ALREADY BETTER THAN HIM AND THIS IS THE ONLY THING HE HAS EVER WANTED.
I asked the old man if the son was good.
The old man said, "He's alright."
Sal did not react. Sal has heard "he's alright" his entire life. Sal understands what it means. Sal will say it to his own son in thirty years and mean the same thing.
I have sent four people to Sal.
None of them were told the address. I described the fence.
They all found it.
They always find it.
I mentioned that my garage door was making a sound.
An American immediately said, "I got a guy."
He did not ask what the sound was. He did not ask what kind of door. He produced a guy on the basis of the word garage.
I asked who the guy was.
He said, "Just a guy."
He did not have a company name. He had a first name and a phone number in his phone saved as "Mike Garage."
That is the contact name. Mike Garage. As though Garage is his surname. As though there is a family.
I asked how he found this guy.
"My brother-in-law used him."
I asked if the brother-in-law was satisfied.
He thought about it. Then he said, "He's still standing."
The house is still standing. That is the entire review.
Inside I said: THEY DO NOT KEEP RECORDS. THEY KEEP LOYALTIES.
I called Mike Garage. He answered from inside a vehicle. There was wind. He said he could come Tuesday between eleven and four.
Between eleven and four. A window of five hours. In my country this would be a scandal. Here it is generous. He gave me a window at all. Some guys do not give you a window. Some guys say "Tuesday" and that is the whole appointment.
He came at 1:40.
He fixed it in twenty minutes. He charged me less than I expected and he did not take a card, only cash or an app I had never heard of.
Before leaving he looked at my water heater, which I had not mentioned, and said, "That's gonna go."
I asked when.
"Couple years."
I asked what I should do.
He said, "I'll give you a guy."
He gave me a guy. Mike Garage has a guy. The guy has a guy. There is a network beneath this country made entirely of men named after their function, and none of them advertise, and all of them are busy.
Inside I said: THERE IS A SECOND NATION HERE. IT HAS NO SIGNS. IT IS ENTERED ONLY BY INTRODUCTION.
I have been given four guys since.
I have a guy for trees.
I did not know I needed a guy for trees.
I have trees now, apparently. They are my responsibility. A man named Rick told me so and then left.
@dietcoke_tgirl OH HOLD UP I THOUGHT THE KITTY POUNCED INTO YOUR FACE I JUST REALIZED WHATS ACTUALLY HAPPENING LMAO i would dive into your eyes instead :)
she used me so good, I got home, sat down and started grinding into my seat cause my brain wasn't switched back on yet. being hard of hearing makes me really good with directions cause I have to try so hard to hear what the fuck you're saying ๐ good dog points accumulated