Wage Slave

"I need to talk to someone. About the stuff we talked about yesterday."

"Crista, I told you to talk to your parents." He looked mad at me.

"I did." I stood right in front of him and put my hands on my hips. "That's why I'm here. I need more information."

"Like what?"

"Like everything." I pointed at the bar stools. "And I mean everything. How my dad got to be the auctioneer, how come he sold my mom, everything."

"And if I don't want to tell you?"

I shrugged. I'd already thought about that possibility.

"I can wait until Alicia shows up for her car." I hooked a thumb toward the parking lot. "I can sit in my car out there every day until she gets here and then follow her to wherever she goes after she leaves."

"She won't tell you anything."

"She will if I threaten to tell my dad she's not obeying the terms of her contract." I lifted one shoulder slightly. "I am, after all, the daughter of the auctioneer."

"That's blackmail."

I lifted my shoulder again.

"All you have to do is tell me what I want to know. And call Alicia and ask her if she'll talk to me too."

He sighed but got up from his barstool and reached for the phone.

"Why couldn't you be more like your mother?"

"I am. I'm just like my mom," I told him as he dialed a number on the phone handset. "The part you don't understand is that I'm also just like my dad."

"That's the part that's scaring me." He broke off talking to me to start speaking into the phone. "Alicia? It's Hank."

There was a short pause before he started talking again.

"There's a problem and I need you to come by so we can talk about it."

Another short pause.

"When you're done with that is fine, but don't make it too long. It's serious."

Yet another pause while he listened.

"Okay, half an hour. See you then." He hung up and put the handset back into its base.

"Half an hour?"

"She's working and it'll take her half an hour before she can be here."

"Working?"

"You'll see." He waved his hands out the door toward my car. "I have the new fuel filter, I can put it in while we wait if you want. That'll save you a trip back."

"Can you show me?" I got up from the barstool. "That way I'll know what it is in case it does it again and I can fix it myself if you're not around or I can't get here."

"Sure, let me get my tools." He moved past me and grabbed his rolling tool cart. Pushing it out of the shop to a place near my car, he came back inside and picked a small blue and white box off the shelf where I knew he put the parts for the cars he was working on.

"If you want to watch, then let's go." He walked past me again, dropped the box on his tool cart before leaning into my car to release the hood latch. I lifted the hood and used the prop rod to hold it up while he started pointing things out to me.

"Air cleaner." He used a wrench to undo the nut in the center of the round gray container on top of my engine, lifting it out of the way once it was loose he pointed some more. "Carburetor, fuel line, fuel filter."

The last thing he pointed at was a cylinder in the middle of the rubber hose that ran from my fender to the carburetor. Taking a screwdriver he starting undoing the little metal clamps around the rubber hoses going to the cylinder. In seconds he had it loose and was twisting it so the ends of the cylinder would come out of the rubber hose. The smell of gas was suddenly strong after it came off and he quickly used a red shop rag to catch the dribble of gas that came from the hose.

"Back by the gas tank there's a little electric pump that pushes the gas up to the engine." He started opening the blue and white box as he talked to me. "The gas tank at the gas station, and your gas tank in your car, can have rust and other things in them. The pump will push those things into the fuel line and send that junk into your carburetor where it can make all kinds of bad things happen. To stop that, there's a filter in the fuel line to catch any junk before it gets there."

He held up the new filter, it was bigger than the one he'd just taken off.

"This is the filter. When it gets filled with crud, it clogs up and the gas can't get through. When that happens your engine dies just like you ran out of gas."

"Oh." I looked into the engine compartment. "That seems pretty simple."

"It is," he stuffed the ends of the new filter into the hoses and moved the clamps into place before using his screwdriver to tighten one of the clamps. Straightening, he held out the screwdriver to me.

"Here. You tighten the other clamp. You can't learn just by watching."

Tentatively, I took the screwdriver and put it into the screwdriver slot on the clamp. Twisting the screwdriver I watched as the clamp tightened around the hose.

"Not too tight." Mr. Darcy cautioned me. "It has to be tight enough so it doesn't leak, but not so tight that it crushes the hose barb."

I tightened it until I thought it was tight enough then got out of his way so he could check. Taking the screwdriver he stuck it in the clamp and twisted slightly. The screw barely tightened before he pulled the screwdriver out.

"Good job. I didn't even have to tell you which way to turn the screw." He looked at me and winked one eye. "We'll make a mechanic out of you yet."

I snorted at him for that because girls weren't mechanics. He grinned at me for a second then used his chin.

"Start it up."

"Why?"

"So we can check if it's going to leak."

Oh, I'd forgotten about that. Leaning in through the driver's window, I twisted the key. The engine started instantly even though I'd expected it not to. Just like before.

"There's a small gas reservoir in the carburetor called a float bowl," Mr. Darcy told me and pointed. "There was gas in it already. When the engine is running the fuel pump will fill the filter faster than the engine uses the gas in the carburetor. Once the filter is full it will let gas go through to refill the float bowl. There's a little valve in there that stops the gas from coming in when it's full so it doesn't overflow."

"That makes sense." It did, once he explained it. I looked at the filter as he used his fingers around the ends of the hoses near the clamps checking to see if it was leaking underneath where we couldn't see it. Nothing that I could see and apparently he was satisfied too because he started putting my air cleaner back on, using the wrench to tighten the nut in the center.

"All fixed." He wiped his hands on a rag and used his chin to point with again. "You can shut it off."

"So that's it?" I looked into the engine compartment after turning the key off. "That's all it takes to be a mechanic?"

"Well you have to know what you're doing, but once you do, fixing things isn't that difficult." He dropped the rag onto the tool cart and started pushing it inside again. "It's not that complicated."

We sat on the bar stools as he explained that all engines needed three things, fuel, air and ignition, in the right amounts at the right time and, if those three things were there like they were supposed to be, then the engine would run. Just as he finished telling me all that, a delivery van rolled up and stopped behind my car. LTL Shipping and Freight was painted on the side of the van. The driver got out and headed our way.

She headed for us inside the shop. Once inside and after her eyes adjusted, she saw me sitting with Mr. Darcy and stopped instantly when she recognized me from the day before.

"Hank?"

"Crista wants to talk to you." He got up off his barstool and used one hand to tell her to sit down in his place.

She just looked at him then at me.

"Hi." I smiled at her. "I'm Crista. My dad is the auctioneer."

She inhaled sharply and her eyes got big before she looked at Mr. Darcy.

"Am I in trouble for something."

"No." I pointed at the other bar stool with a finger. "I just wanted to talk to you about how it all works."

She looked at me then back to Mr. Darcy.

"Sit." He patted the bar stool. "She has this thing about only talking to people who are sitting down."

"That's it, just talk?" She eased herself onto the stool.

I nodded.

"Will you tell me what it was like the first time you were sold?"

"The first time, or for real?" She wiggled to give herself a little bit of time but eventually answered after I just waited.

"It's not the same thing?"

She shook her head no.

"The first time was part of a kink club. You know what that is, right?" She paused and waited for me to nod that I knew. "My boyfriend at the time was a member of a kink club and we acted like he was the master and I was the slave. It was all fake but still a lot of fun. We broke up a few months later for other reasons."

"Oh." I looked out the door. "And the time it was for real? Were you scared?"

She looked at me and then at Mr. Darcy again.

"She's a little confused, that's all. She's just looking for answers and not anything else."

"You're sure?"

He nodded. She waited a bit then shifted on her stool again.

"The first time I was sold, I really didn't know what to expect. I was dating this guy and mentioned the first time, the fake time you know, and he said that he knew some people who were into that. I said, Oh really?, and he said yeah and that there was going to be a slave auction the next month.

"We went. They asked me all kinds of questions about what kind of sex I'd had and with who, did I like my job, how long I'd worked there, things like that. Then they stripped me naked and put me up on this platform and the people there started bidding." She blushed but lifted her chin as if she was proud of it. "I was sold for twelve dollars and thirty six cents."

"Twelve dollars?" I was shocked. My mom said she'd been sold for fifty.

"And thirty six cents." Alicia added in the change. "It was the going rate at the time."

"The going rate?"

"For skilled labor. I already had my delivery driver's license."

I looked at Mr. Darcy in confusion.

"The sale price is the amount of money that whoever buys you is willing to pay you per hour." Alicia spoke before Mr. Darcy could. "Didn't you know that?"

I shook my head. She must have taken pity on me because she started elaborating on what she meant.

"Okay, the way it works is that you get evaluated for your skills and... other things."

"Like sex." I interrupted her.

"Yes." She answered then went on. "Everything outside of your job skills is graded on a scale of one to ten. Those grades are given at the beginning of the auction so everyone knows right up front what they're looking at. Next, your job skills are read out along with any special qualifications you have. Anyone who's interested can bid at that point. Their bid is what they're willing to pay you for the job they're hiring you to do. The one who is willing to pay the most wins."

CHAPTER ELEVEN

"So it's a like a job fair?" I asked once she was done explaining how it all worked.

She shook her head no.

"The job is what they're hiring you for, the auction is for the rest of you. There's an assumption that the person who will pay the most will value you the most and will do their best to take care of you. That's why there's a contract for that part. It's separate from the job but it's to ensure that you're taken care of."

"But..."

"The auction price is the guarantee for the job. You don't have to have a contract for the other things if you don't want to, that's up to you and the buyer. If you can't agree, then there's no contract. If you and the buyer want to, you can still work for him for the pay he offered during his bid. Or you can both say no and the next highest bidder gets his chance at making a contract with you at the winning price."

She glanced at Mr. Darcy for a second then looked straight at me.

"It's all voluntary. No one is forced to do anything they don't want to."

"That's what everyone says but it's hard to believe. I mean, you got sold and everything."

"Yes, I was sold. My boss outbid everyone else to hire me."

"And your contract?"

"Is mutually satisfactory." She stood up and turned to Mr. Darcy. "I have to get back to work."

"Thank you Alicia. I know this wasn't something you expected."

She touched his face with her fingertips, just like she had the last time, then kissed him on the cheek again.

"How long before my car is finished?"

"A couple of days. I'll call."

"I'll be waiting." She licked her lips once and walked back to her delivery van. Before she got in she looked at me watching her.

"It's kind of scary, but it's also exciting too because everyone is interested in what makes you happy instead of what you can do for them that makes them money. That you don't know what it's going to be like when it's all over is what makes it scary. The anticipation that it'll be exactly like you hoped it would be is what makes it really exciting."

"Would you do it again?" I asked.

"I've done it three times." She flashed a big smile back at me. "It's still scary and exciting."

She didn't say anything else. She just looked at Mr. Darcy and licked her lips again before getting into her van and closing the door with a slam and driving away.

"She likes you."

"She has a contract and I get the benefit from it. That's all." He looked at me then my car making a hint in the way he usually did. I ignored him.

"Can I watch you work?" I swivelled the bar stool, riding it all the way around as I spun a full circle. "I promise I won't ask any more questions about that stuff."

"It's boring."

"I don't have anything else to do." I did my one shoulder shrug again. "Besides, if you teach me, I can learn to be a mechanic. A girl mechanic. I bet there aren't too many of those, I'd be special."

"You're already special." He moved over next to the Audi on his lift. "Ask your mom, she'll tell you that."

I rolled my eyes and got off the barstool to follow him over to the Audi, which had the wheels and tires off.

"So, these are the brakes?"

He closed his eyes and shook his head a few times but began pointing at things and telling me what they were and how it all worked. Just like the fuel filter, it all made sense because it wasn't that complicated. Maybe the entire car was because it had all the different systems in it, but each system by itself was fairly simple and easy to understand.

What surprised me was that the same principle applied to my mom and Mr. Hammond. And to Alicia and Mr. Darcy too. It was only complicated when you tried to put it all under one heading without understand how it all worked together. Each separate piece of the puzzle, however, wasn't complicated at all.

It was like; as long as you stepped on the gas pedal when you needed to, and stepped on the brakes the way you were supposed to, and steer like you should, everyone around you is happy you aren't driving like Mrs. Magoo. And you're happy they aren't driving like that either. But, skip just one of those things and you can cause an accident really fast because no one understands what you're doing.

"Huh." The word popped out of my mouth.

"What?" Mr. Darcy paused in what he was doing.

"I just realized that I've been driving like I'm Mrs. Magoo and didn't know it."

He just looked at me.

"It's complicated." I grinned at him.

"Well, Mrs. Magoo, you see that red and yellow box over there on the shelf?" He pointed at the same shelf where he'd gotten my car's filter from.

"Yes."

"Fetch."

I fetched and watched him remove the old brakes and put the new ones in. He talked to me while he worked and I got the feeling that he didn't usually have anyone around during the day to talk to. Which made me feel kind of sad until I realized that me being there changed that.

I showed up the next morning wearing an old pair of jeans, a T shirt and my hair in a pony tail held by a pink scrunchie with white polka dots. When he just looked at me I put my hands on my hips and looked back.

"What?" I asked when he didn't say anything.

"Nothing." He gave me a little wave to come in. "Just don't start doing any housecleaning."

At which point he immediately handed me a broom and told me to wait until he got Alicia's car off the lift. Once it was out of the way I started sweeping up all the dirt and other stuff that had fallen off of it when he'd been changing the brakes. While I was doing that, he called Alicia and told her that her car was ready.

Mr. Darcy was showing me how to adjust the lift pads under the Chevy station wagon he'd driven into the shop after I finished sweeping when Alicia showed up in the brown Lexus again. She got out of the passenger side of the car and closed the door behind her. The driver got out this time too and followed her into the shop.

"Go do the other side just like this side." Mr. Darcy told me as he grabbed a rag and wiped his hands off with it.

"Okay." I rose to my feet and looked over at Alicia, twinkling my fingers in her direction when she switched her eyes to me instead of Mr. Darcy, before going around to the other side of the car and getting down on my knees again to position and adjust the pads on the lifting arms underneath the car.

"What's she doing here?" Alicia asked in a low voice. I looked underneath the back of the car toward them to see her lean closer to Mr. Darcy when she said it.

"Alicia," the other woman spoke sharply in warning about something.

"Yes ma'am." With another quick glance in my direction, Alicia got down on her knees in front of Mr. Darcy. Using both hands she unzipped his pants even though he tried stepping back out of reach and grabbed her wrists.

I didn't say a word as I walked past them to go sit in my car. The other woman spun to keep her eyes on me when I went by. I kept my eyes forward and didn't even glance at Mr. Darcy and Alicia.

Two songs on the radio later, the unknown woman came out of the shop and drove away in her Lexus. Mr. Darcy was handing Alicia her car keys when I went back inside. She looked sweaty and excited when I sat down on one of the bar stools and looked at the two of them.

"Crista..." Mr. Darcy started then stopped. I raised both eyebrows and waited for a second before looking over at Alicia. She just stood there looking back at me. I winked at her with one eye. She immediately snorted and looked at Mr. Darcy who looked everywhere except at either of us.

"Thank you Hank." She touched his face with her fingertips again. Leaning in, she kissed him on the cheek just like before then turning around to look at me again.

"Was it good?" I asked.

"Crista!" Mr. Darcy almost yelled my name at me to tell me to shut up.

Alicia looked at the two of us but I just waited.

"Satisfying." She finally told me after a long pause.

"Alicia!" Mr. Darcy yelled her name this time.

We both just looked at him then each other before I got up off the stool and went to finish setting the lift pads under the station wagon. I saw Alicia give Mr. Darcy another kiss, on the mouth this time, before she left. She caught me looking and waved before getting into her car.

"Sorry." Mr. Darcy apologized as he knelt down next to me beside the station wagon.

"For what?" I sat back on my heels and looked to where Alicia had just given him a blowjob right in front of the other woman whose name I didn't know. "That? That's none of my business."

CHAPTER TWELVE

I showed up the next morning wearing the same jeans, only now they had black dirt ground into the knees. When he saw me, Mr. Darcy threw up his hands and disappeared into the back, coming out a few seconds later holding a jumpsuit.

"Here, put this on for now. I'll get you one that fits next week, the uniform places are closed over the weekends."

I took the jumpsuit and looked at him.

"Go on." He pointed at the bathroom so I went in and closed the door. Not that I needed to, I just slipped it on over my clothes.