The mechanic

The man who lived across the river, drove a small brown car. It was quite old, but was still quiet and efficient. One day this car broke down, and then this man had to walk everywhere. He didn't like using the train, or the bus. He just walked. The breakdown of the car was a pivotal moment in his life. For he was a mechanic and he owned a garage. When he walked, he walked between home and the garage and back. The breakdown of his car was a pivotal moment is his life because he could not fix it back.

He was really the technical guy in his garage, not like a top-brass, manager-type. He led most of the repair jobs, hands on, getting his hands dirty and others basically assisted him. The gossip in the scene was that jobs at his garage were like easy jobs, because he was always there for most of the tough decisions. So, it was a major letdown for him to not be able to fix his own car. He couldn't do anything. And it happened just like that.

One night he drove back and the car never started up again.

Short of replacing the whole engine, he tried everything else. He enjoyed repairing more than replacing anyway.

So he started walking. His car, he donated to the neighbourhood playground as a prop. At least he could see it every now and then he thought. But in the park something strange happened.

The children started complaining that the car was alive, that it they could hear all kinds of weird sounds. The mechanic had always known that the car was alive, but life after death? Or a haunted presence? He went and checked the car. It seemed to be in the same form as before, lifeless. He hung around for hours, but no sounds. No action. No sign. The car was dead, he confirmed.

But the complaints kept coming, morning, evening and night. The car made strange sounds, unprovoked. When children played inside and outside. So the mechanic got thinking. Maybe the car was trying to say something. Send a message? Was it sending a message? He asked all his friends, his priest at the temple, but noone could give him an answer. No one gave him a confirmed response. He kept asking people he met. People started thinking he had lost it. A mechanic who lost it because he failed to fix his own car - the story started gaining traction. Customers didn't come to his garage anymore. He couldn't fix his own car? Maybe he won't be able to fix mine too. It reached a point, that the mechanic thought about selling the shop and go away to some other city. Only his happy employees were ready to buy his maligned and infamous garage. He sold it to the team together and he left.

The day he was leaving town, he went to see the car again. This time the car was making audible sounds, he was startled. How and why and why now? He got into the car and put his key in and it started. It started. He turned it off and got out of the car. He was plain angry. He walked away as fast as he could. Caught a bus to the next town. The car stopped making sounds. The mechanic's ego was not bruised anymore, but he couldn't think of fixing another car. He had lost his confidence. So he did nothing. Sitting around on benches all day, doing nothing. Just staring at people passing by. Going for long walks, no thoughts worth remembering. No stories to tell.

He got up in the morning and thought he had nothing to live for anymore. He was getting old, but not old enough to die. He decided to evolve, he will become a machine. A machine that can fix itself, that can be its own mechanic. And in the days and week ahead, he started sketching, drawing, detailing this machine.