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-DurtyRiter
The Man with the Jeep
Chapter 62
"Definitely squatters," John declared. "But it looks like they are gone now. We will change the locks to be sure they don't come back, and we should be good to go. You all right?"
Andrew nodded. At least it was something tangible, he sighed to himself.
"You're still a little uneasy, aren't you?"
"Well yeah," Andrew admitted. "Wouldn't you be?"
"I am," John confirmed. "In fact, I'd rather you not come here alone until we change the locks. Whoever it was is probably long gone, but let's play it safe just in case."
"Okay," Andrew agreed. He was much more at ease knowing John was with him on this.
They waded back through the tall grass to John's car and were soon back on the road and heading toward The Three Jacks.
"I have a different kind of weekend in mind this time, if you're game," John said as he drove.
"I honestly don't care as long as I get to spend it with you."
"You're so sweet," John said with a smile.
"You're just salty," Andrew replied.
"Oh, ho!" John exclaimed. "Am I?"
"Definitely," Andrew asserted. "Like an old sea dog."
"Wow," John said in a long, drawn-out way. "And here I thought I won you over with my heart of gold."
He breathed an inner sigh of relief that Andrew had rebounded enough to banter back and forth with him again.
"You don't think both can be true?" Andrew asked.
"You tell me."
"Of course they can."
"Then salty gold I am," said John. Andrew wasn't looking at John's sudden and very brief pained expression at that moment, so he had no way of knowing how John took that inadvertently piercing comment to heart.
"What did you have in mind this weekend?" Andrew asked, this time turning to look at John.
"I want to show you something that I think you'll really like. I've been saving it until now."
"Oh really?"
"Yep."
"What is it?"
John just grinned and gave him a quick wink.
"Oh no!"
"Oh yes."
Andrew rolled his eyes. At least John's surprises were always good ones. This time, he just decided to rest on his trust in John and didn't even bother to try to figure it out.
As it turned out, he quickly found out he would have been floundering in vain when they sailed right past the Jacks sign. They did, however, pull off the highway a bit farther up the road onto the gravel drive that led to the horror movie garage from their first trip out here. John pulled up to the rusty old Quonset hut and turned to Andrew.
"Could you do me a favor and slide this card over the panel next to the man door?"
"Sure," Andrew said with a shrug.
He got out and walked around to the side of the building until he found a conspicuously shiny plain black panel next to the door. He waved the supplied card across the surface and the little red LED at the bottom changed to a green.
He heard the garage door start to rise just before he noticed a worn but still very legible sentence spray painted on the door in red in a standard military template: "All trespassers subject to detainment and waive all rights to fair treatment" with a smirking skull and crossbones logo below. One of Andrew's eyebrows quirked up at that.
He went back around to the front to find that John had already pulled his car into the garage. All thoughts about the intriguing warning were wiped from thought as he saw inside the "murder hut" clearly for the first time.
It was so clean and bright that Andrew winced at first glance. Technically, the only thing different from the first visit was that the old familiar Jeep was nowhere to be seen. John's old hatchback was still buried under a cover below the wacky little wagon on the lift. The boxy van and the big covered coupe were likewise unchanged from weeks ago.
Now that he was up close, he saw the floor wasn't just old concrete, but a textured gray epoxy that was shiny enough to reflect every gleam of light from the blinding overhead fixtures. He also saw that in front of the vehicles, the garage stretched on, though darkness obscured what was beyond. "Okay, tourist," John teased. "Come grab your bag."
Andrew quickly snagged his stuff from the back seat as John closed the garage door behind them. "This looks fancy," Andrew commented.
"Oh, it is," John said. "Grandpa was into cars, and this was his project. Are you a gearhead?"
"Not really," Andrew admitted.
"Shame," John said. "He has a pretty amazing collection that almost nobody knows exists."
"Is that why you have all the fancy security systems?"
"Yeah, though it really needs to be updated. I was just talking to him last week and he wants to make it a retinal scan thing now."
"Why on earth would he do all that? Is it really that big a deal?"
"Oh yeah," John assured him. "If we were in the city, he would have lost them long ago."
"So where are these fancy things?"
"Right this way," John gestured into the shadows.
As they walked close to the darkened end of the garage, motion sensors triggered lights that came on ahead of them, illuminating a wide arched corridor stretching even farther back. Andrew could now make out silver cars on each side of the path. The farther they walked, the more sections lit up.
Some were futuristic, some were antiques, and there was a bit of everything in betweenÑeven a weird torpedo-looking van. The collection seemed to be very eclectic and the only thing they had in common was silver paint, though he suspected some of them weren't painted at all.
"I can tell you're not a car guy," John laughed. "You'd be drooling at all this."
Andrew shrugged. "Sorry." Cars were not his thing.
"It's all good. We might have lost a weekend if you were," John joked. "But let me fill you in a little bit."
Andrew shrugged again. "Sure."
"Like I said, my grandpa is really into cars, but his favorites are obscure American brands that never made more than one car.
"In fact, have you seen the movie `That Thing You Do!'?"
It sounded vaguely familiar to Andrew. "MaybeÉ" he said slowly.
"It's a Tom Hanks movie about a one-hit wonder band with Liv Tyler in itÉ" prompted John.
"Oh yeah! I liked that one!"
"Well, Grandpa calls this his `Oneder Collection.'"
"Don't you mean `Wonder Collection?'"
"Exactly!" John beamed.
"Oh my God," groaned Andrew. "He's as bad as you, isn't he?"
"I had to get it from somewhere, didn't I?" John laughed.
Andrew rolled his eyes for good measure.
"Anyway, he started buying a few of them here and there until he had this collection. There are actually more at his place in Palm Springs, but he keeps the rarer ones here."
Each vehicle had its own space and lighting to show it off in the best way possible. Not dioramas exactly, but a few relevant accessory elements so it wasn't just a lonely car in a cubicle.
They all had identifying plaques with the names in big bold letters at the top and smaller text below. The names meant just about nothing to him: Dymaxion, Hennessey, Tucker, Vector, Dual-Ghia, Falcon, Ruxton, Kurtis, Cizeta, Zeder, FiskerÉ Of the thirty or so vehicles, Andrew only recognized a DeLorean and the name "Shelby"Ñ-though the car itself didn't look any more familiar to him than the others.
John prattled on, giving the highlights of the stories behind some of the cars as they passed them. It was somewhat interesting to hear about the drama behind these creations, but Andrew was more interested in simply listening to his handsome host talking to him and watching him admiringly as they strolled.
Past the displays were a few closed rooms.
"Am I allowed to ask what's in these rooms?"
"Sure," John replied. "One is my granddad's office, one is a library just for his car books, one is a restroom, and the last one is just for storage."
After the closed rooms, the wide corridor ended at some art deco-styled doors to what looked like a freight elevator.
Andrew looked at John quizzically to find John grinning at him.
"An elevator? Really?"
"Yep!" John replied. "Well, sort of, actually," he amended. "It's called an Inclinator. Have you ever been to the Luxor in Vegas?"
"A long time ago, why?"
"Did you ride the elevators there?"
"Yeah," Andrew answered. "I remember they were weird."
"Exactly. They travel at an angle, and that's what this one does too."
"Where does it go?"
"At an angle," John replied diffidently, clearly trying not to laugh.
Andrew punched him in the gut for his efforts.
"Hey!" John protested before he pressed the button.
The doors immediately slid open and revealed the lift in all its stylishly sleek glory.
Like the outer doors, it had a very jet age feel to it, with stylized shapes composed into a rising motif that suggested skyscrapers, streamlining, and dirigibles. Most elements looked like simple skinny arches cut in half from top to bottom with taller ones interspersed between. About a third of the way up were three thin horizontal stripes in black that went all the way around the cab. Each piece was comprised of a different polished metal, which gave a sense of layers despite the flat panels. It was undeniably impressive.
"You going to get in, or just stand there staring at it?" John quipped.
Andrew gave him a mock glare and took deliberately slow steps through the door.
The joke ended up being at his own expense though, because the doors started to close on him and he had to push them open again.
John laughed as he joined Andrew in the lift. "I know," he said. "This does look impressive. But wait until you see what's at the top."
John pressed one of the buttons and the doors swept shut again and the cab began its ascent.
"The top?" asked Andrew. "I thought we'd be going down."
"You did, huh?" John replied with a twinkle in his eye. "Later, I'm sure, but for now, we are going upÑish!"
Andrew rolled his eyes, but the odd movement of the inclinator confirmed John's claims. Andrew was still trying to figure out how this was possible.
The Quonset hut was in a level clearing and he never saw anything sticking above the trees, so how could they be going up? Then again, he never noticed the long extension off the back that housed Grandpa Finnegan's car collection either. Probably painted in such a way as to camouflage it into the woods, he reasoned. That would fit in apprpriately with all the other crazy buildings in this campground. And it stretched back for quite a way. Now that he thought about it, the Jeep would start to climb almost immediately after it got out of the vale when they drove up to the grotto. That would mean this "inclinator" could indeed be underground as he first guessed even though they were moving upwards. But where would it end up? He finally admitted to himself there was no way to know before they reached the end of the line.
"A little bit mind-bending, isn't it?" John asked him with a knowing grin. "As you can probably guess, this was my inspiration for how I did the outhouse."
"Yeah, it's kind of crazy. I never noticed how long the garage was or even imagined this thing," he said, gesturing to encompass the lift.
"Wait `til you see where we're going," John said beaming.
"Who built this part?"
"My grandparents again. It was going to be their last hurrah and final home, but then changed their minds and moved to Palm Springs for the warmer weather. They still like to come back here a lot during the summer though."
Just then they could feel the elevator slowing to a stop.
"Hey!" John called sharply.
Andrew turned toward him in alarm.
"Sorry; just wanted your full attention for a sec. I think you should close your eyes for this," John recommended.
Andrew took a split second to decide while he heard the doors start to open behind him before he did as requested.
"Okay," John whispered in his ear as he turned Andrew around and led him forward with one hand on his shoulder and one hand on his elbow. "Right this way, if you will."
John led him about ten steps forward before stopping him.
"Alright," he said. "Open your eyes."
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DurtyRiter@protonmail.com