WTC 4: Sparkplug

Early Sunday evening was settling in on the large parking lot of Twins plaza. Several groups of cars were parked here and there. Inside the cars, or standing outside, groups of young people were chatting with each other, drinking coffee, having a cigarette, or listening to music. The focal point was the Twins Coffee Shop. Twins parking lot was the place where restless suburban youth assembled to plot against the vast oppression of middle-class life.

Two friends, Pauli and Lennon, were lounging in reclined seats of Lennon’s white Lexus. They were talking about Eli Panier, a newly minted Silicon Valley billionaire.

“Can you imagine?” said Pauli, “The man comes to the country with barely a dime in his pocket, and ten years later he’s running the most profitable AI firm on the planet. He is one of those rare geniuses who just see things others cannot see. He explains it to these hedge fund wizards, and they hand him over hundreds of millions of dollars. Next thing you know, our reality is getting transformed by new technology.”

“Man, I met some of those hedge fund guys in college and these people have next-level vision,” said Lennon. “Their everyday reality is something we can only dream about. They run this country. Hell, they run this world. But to Eli Panier they are only a bunch of bumbling children. Can you imagine that level of flow?”

Pauli essentially agreed: “Bankers may run the country, but they don’t do anything creative. Eli Panier on the other hand is a modern-day Prometheus. He is taking humanity to the space age.”

“Bankers don’t give a shit about the space age, man,” said Lennon. “Cash rules. They care about living the good life. Mansions, swimming pools, women. They let the nerds build the technology, and they take the money and celebrate by banging supermodels.”

“Sure, finance requires a high-level IQ, but at Eli Panier’s level of IQ? He has transcended sex, man. To people like him, sex is like a remnant of our animal evolution. They get mind orgasms thinking about space and science.”

“You make him sound like a prude,” replied Lennon. “Sure, his IQ is through the roof, but let me tell you, to win in business, you need to have balls, too. You need to know how to break the rules.”

Pauli and Lennon turned up hip hop on the sound system and looked out onto the parking lot and the Twins coffee shop next to it. Inside the coffee shop, three immigrant women in plain grey uniforms and hairnets were busy taking orders. They were serving coffee and donuts to an endless line of customers pulling up and out of the plaza during the evening rush hour. The two friends scanned the patrons casually and commented on any eccentricities. There wasn’t much to say: it was another old file of suburbanites, slumped and bleary-eyed from work, looking impatiently at the counter for their turn to order an overload of carbs, or distracting themselves busily on their phones.

“All these working stiffs look so miserable,” commented Lennon.

“You have to avoid the nine-to-five at all costs,” concurred Pauli.

A black sedan pulled up some distance in front of them, next to a red one that was already parked there for a while. Two beautiful young women walked out of it. A third attractive girl walked out of the red car, and they greeted each other with hugs.

“Damn, that’s Laura,” Pauli identified one of the two arrivals.

“Man, she was in high school, but right now she’s turning into a total bombshell,” said Lennon.

“She’s dating some lawyer who works downtown.”

This was news to Lennon. “She knows what she’s doing, eh? A downtown lawyer is a big upgrade from her last boyfriend.”

“Yeah, no kidding. That bouncer who got arrested for beating some junkie kid half-dead.”

“Let’s go talk to those girls,” said Lennon.

“Honk or something,” said Pauli.

As they were deliberating, a dilapidated white Honda Civic pulled up right parallel to their car, and the driver rolled down his windows. It was their high school friend Theo.

“Dude, where have you disappeared? We haven’t seen you much this summer,” said Pauli.

“Working hard,” said Theo.

“You still working with that crazy Ramón dude?” asked Lennon. “Why are you doing that crazy job man? Those construction guys are mad as bats.”

“It’s a good question. I’ve been wondering that myself.”

“And where were you last night? We were all playing poker at my house,” said Pauli, “You should have seen this hand I got, a high flush on the flop, and Beans gets a fucking full house on the river…”

Theo ignored the poker story and answered the initial question: “Man, last night was crazy. Marvin and I ended up at a pool party in Pine Grove. I ended up sleeping with these cougars at their house.”

“Pine Grove! Ooh!” exclaimed Lennon, “That’s sick man. You’ve got to introduce us to some of your new rich friends.”

“You guys chill here every day, huh?” Theo asked. “Don’t you ever get bored of Twins?”

“Bored?” answered Pauli, “This is where it’s at my man! Check out the action over there.” He pointed at the three newly arrived girls.

“Oh, it’s Laura and those girls,” said Theo, “I can barely recognize her.”

Theo stepped out of the car and went into Twins to buy a coffee. On his way there he passed right by Laura and waved a hello. On his way out, he chatted up the girls. He nodded in the direction of Pauli and Lennon. The girls waved. Next thing, the boys and the girls were all out of their cars talking to each other.

“So, what have you been up to, Pauli?” asked Laura. “I saw your mom at the mall the other day. She told me about your plans to move to the big city.”

“Oh, nothing is sure yet,” said Pauli, “We are considering expanding with another restaurant in New York. But we are only in the planning stage.”

Everyone congratulated Pauli. Only Lennon and Laura had known the news.

“When you set up shop in Manhattan, I’m coming down right away,” joked Lennon, “I’ll move my accounting business down there too and we will live the high life. All the ladies are welcome to join us as well.”

Theo was beginning to feel uncomfortable. His construction job wasn’t going to fit in well into that conversation. However, he could brag about making friends in Pine Grove.

“Talking about the high life,” he said, “I went to a party in this mansion in Pine Grove. You should see how glitzy this place was, with this fancy pool and everything. I made friends with the host himself – this banker guy called Neil. He and his friends were talking about all these investments they were making. High-tech kind of ventures.”

“Well, buddy, you have an electrical engineering degree, man!” Pauli said encouragingly, “You were the math nerd in high school. Tell those guys to hook you up with some work! You can work the Excel sheets for them, predict the stock market.”

“Actually, we did talk some business. I think I might have a chance.”

“What kind of business?” asked Lennon.

“Well, like what Pauli said. Similar to that. One thing is, Neil proposed I do some analysis on this tech start-up he is considering as an angel investor. It’s in the electronics sector, so I could help out with that.”

“That’s awesome!” said Pauli, “I’m sure you can get it if you want it.”

Theo didn’t look very confident. “We’ll see. It may be complicated.”

“Hmm, I guess it’s nice,” said Laura, “but I don’t see you as an investor. You don’t have that personality.”

“And what kind of personality is that?” asked Theo.

“I don’t know, you seem more of a gets-down-and-dirty type of guy,” she answered.

A warm summer night began to set. Some more friends came and went. Most people knew each other from back in high school. Most of their conversations revolved around recycled jokes and gossip. Eventually, there were only left our three guys and Laura, who stuck around after Lennon bought frappes for everyone. Lennon also promised to drop her off at home at the end.

Pauli turned the conversation to his favourite comic, doing impressions of some of his jokes. He then got everyone to go back to Lennon’s Lexus to listen to one of his podcast episodes. Theo sat in the back with Laura. Lennon and Pauli played the piece in front and found it hilarious. Theo chuckled here and there.

Laura didn’t find it funny at all. The piece was making fun of women. “I don’t know, the guy just sounds like he is really bitter.”

“It’s not like that,” said Pauli, “If you listen to the guy, to his other stuff, you’ll see that he’s not a bad dude. He’s anti-feminist in an ironic way. He has a great relationship with his wife, and she sometimes pitches in too to on his show.”

The argument escalated from there and then reached a stalemate. Laura didn’t think that a woman pitching in meant a free pass for misogynistic rants. She wanted to go home.

“You know what, screw you guys,” – she said to Pauli and Lennon, “Theo, can you please drop me off at home? It’s getting late anyways.”

“Sure,” said Theo. The other two guys were now silenced and awkward.

Theo and Laura walked over to Theo’s car and got in.

“What’s that smell?” she said as she was putting on the seat belt.

“Sorry, it’s my construction equipment. There is some industrial grease, dirty tools. Paint.”

Theo did not foresee a woman in his car that weekend, so he didn’t do any cleaning and knew that Laura was right. He had of course become nose-blind to the car’s stench, which in fact came from the dried sweat from his spare work clothes, his work boots, and several discarded food wraps, all tossed into piles in the back seat. He forgot all about it when he agreed to give Laura a ride.

He turned on the ignition, but after a sharp revving and a screech, it failed to start the engine. The ignition had been giving him problems lately, and he had been planning to take the car to the mechanic. Again, he had not foreseen Laura sitting in his car.

“Shit. looks like I left the light on,” he said after fumbling the buttons and levers around the steering wheel. “I’m such an idiot.”

“Oh. That terrible,” said Laura, “So, we can’t leave?”

“I’m sorry,” answered Theo, “I’m going to have to call the road service to help me out here.”

“Oh, that sucks. Well, I wouldn’t mind sticking around, but I really need to get back home like an hour ago to prepare for work tomorrow.”

“I understand. Why don’t you grab a ride from Lennon while they are still there?”

“Okay,” said Laura. She gave Theo a hug and got out of the car. “Hope it’s a quick fix!”

As Laura got back into the Lexus with Lennon and Pauli, Lennon rolled down his window and asked: “What happened, brother?”

“Man, my car battery died. You guys go right ahead, I’ll wait for the road service.”

“Dude, I got booster cables in the trunk!” Lennon began to step out of the car.

Theo stopped him: “No, no. Won’t help, man, trust me. The battery needs a stronger boost from the big tow truck. It would just kill your battery too if you tried to give me a boost. This happened before. I know my car. You guys just go ahead.”

It took some more convincing, but Lennon got back in his car and the three of them drove off. Theo was left alone in the dark parking lot that at this point was almost deserted. He called road assistance and told them that he would need the car towed to his auto mechanic. No, it wasn’t the battery. It was the sparkplug.

He got out of the car and lit a cigarette in the blue silence of the city at night. The gentle suffocation and the numbness of the tobacco fumes helped him calm down and process the embarrassment he just lived through. He was stoic about it, but then again, he was experiencing every day of his job and every day of his life as another embarrassment, so maybe stoicism isn’t the way to describe his attitude. He was simply desensitized. It didn’t matter – there was nothing to be done, no way to react. At least not for the time being.

He regretted coming to Twins. He was avoiding the place, but he couldn’t resist coming over, and why? To brag to Pauli and Lennon about Pine Grove and getting laid. He blamed himself for it – not for lacking modesty, but for being desperate for the approval of those two friends. They would have done the same thing, he thought, but they are spoiled brats. Theo demanded more of himself.

This time he resolved to quit Twins for good. Yes, to quit it. It was a bad habit. It was a graveyard for ambition, with parked cars as so many tombstones, and stranded, coffee-drinking, cigarette-smoking youths as so many ghosts, and he needed ambition desperately to get him out of his job and out of his life. Twins was the graveyard of ambition; it was a den of cowards. Listless youths staring out of their windshields into the world, never daring to go out, regurgitating old gossip and stale donuts, and tossing the empty paper cups and bags and cigarette boxes to stink and fester in the back seats.

After the tow truck dropped him and his car off at the spot, he bussed back home. He later went to the gym and worked out for two hours. He worked out until the pain of the weights he was lifting erased the pain of the entire week. He ran on the treadmill until he felt like he had run away from it all.