Pressing the button for the door, I scratched at my hair in the mirror but it was hopeless. The best I could do was wipe smeared make-up and hope for ...he best. I gathered my bag, pushed the kitchen door open with my foot and listened for sounds from inside the house. I could hear water running in the bathroom. I headed down the hall. I dropped my bag on the bed and walked toward the bathroom armed with a ready excuse for my bedraggled hair, my wrinkled shirt. He probably wouldn’t notice but I. But the door swung open."Hello, Mr. Malteen." said Alex anxiously. "Good afternoon, Alex." he replied matter-of-factly. "Traci Ann isn't home right now." I know, Mr. Malteen. But she told me to come here and wait for her." "Did she now?" smiled Broderick Malteen. "Very well then, come in." Frightened by Malteen's enigmatic smile, Alex nervously entered the house. In the den, he found a small chair and quietly sat down. "Would you like something to drink Alex?" "That would be very nice, Mr.. We might be able to get by with just greasing the ball joints. We can take the generator apart and replace the bushings and brushes. Once we replace the spark plugs, coil, battery, rotor, distributor cap, and the wires to the spark plugs, then the electrical system will be good for another 20,000 miles.”“I know. It’s just that cars built back then weren’t all that durable.”Benny took the plastic bin with parts and set it off to the side. He grabbed another bin and returned to the engine. They. Explaining what it was, explaining what "nocturnal" meant she said it probably needed a nap. As I held it quietly in my lap it slowly relaxed and unrolled, its sharp claws scratching my bare legs, his long, sticky tongue tasting me before the keeper convinced me to let it slip into its deep burrow so it could go back to sleep.Peggy was like that armadillo, slowly accepting my touch, the tensions slipping away. Finally I was able to take her shoulders, uncoil her and draw her back against me,.