There was never much in the way of entertainment in my small town on the east coast, north of New York and halfway to getting nowhere. I was out in the bitter cold, shovelling snow from the narrow entrance to the garage lot. My face was stinging, bright red no doubt from the winter onslaught. I was tightly packed inside the thick wool filled jacket, breathing heavy as I lugged mounds of snow off into a pile out of the way. It was always this time of year we would find a slew of people passing through having picked up damage on the highway. We were a pass through town, people's destination was never here, it was always beyond.
A truck pulled in as I started to scrape away at the last of the snow that had blocked the entrance. A local who co-owned the only bar along the strip with his wife. He was one of those rugged, outdoor types who just loved to take his 4x4 out onto trails and then come back and tell everyone about it. I wasn't about to submit myself to another one of his lame stories so kept myself looking busy outside, despite the freezing temperature.
All of the weather warnings hadn't stopped people from travelling so we were slowly fed customers who would've seen the sign for our business just before the slip road off the highway. I can't say the inside of the garage was much warmer, being open fronted and exposed to mother nature. I had a free standing heater spitting out some warmth as I worked underneath a sedan raised up on a platform. It took me an hour or so to find the issue and apply a temporary fix, suggesting that the customer order in the correct part and return. They rarely took my advice. Customer retention wasn't exactly something we were good at.
The end of the day was closing in. Mark and Denise had been eager to finish up and before I could run through what needed doing tomorrow they were gone. Locking up was just a case of padlocking the rear door and pulling down the front facing shutters. I'd done the first, in the midst of closing the second as a pair of headlights came into the lot. A huge, blacked out SUV whose engine was chugging unhappily lurched to a stop.
Someone stepped out and I shouted, "sorry we're closed for the day!" I wasn't about to open everything back up.
"Fuck." A woman cursed. "Is there anywhere else that'd be open, do you know?" She'd pulled off her glove that hung from between her teeth as she rapidly typed on her phone.
"No, we're the only garage here." I'd stopped locking up and walked to one side, out of the direct line of the headlights to see who it was. Her voice struck me as familiar but I couldn't place it.
She, like almost everybody else, was wrapped in a heavy jacket, thick scarf coiled up around her neck and a hat. Short with those thin rimmed, squarish old-style glasses, I approached as my curiosity continued to be piqued.
"There's no service here either." I could hear the bitter frustration in her voice. Things were dominoing into chaos.
It'd mean opening up the shop again but I was letting pity sink in, "did you want to use the landline in the office?"
"Would you mind? That'd be great!" She said with mild desperation.
In truth, I would mind but snow was starting to fall again. We'd been due another stormy night and leaving her stranded out here would leave me wrought with guilt, so, here I am opening up the place again. I'd taken her through to the office, and she accepted the offer for me to roll her SUV into the garage and give it a quick once over.
Bringing it in had given me some insight into what was wrong. The gear stick was slipping out of gear and the whole vehicle was struggling to go forward. This wasn't going to be a quick, get this done in a few minutes, job. I only needed to have a short glance at the underside of the vehicle to see the severe leak.
Back in the office she had perched herself up on the edge of the desk. With her hat and scarf now removed and some warmth returning the natural colour to her face, the recognition kicked in, hitting me like a blunt object in the gut. There may have been a distressed look creasing up her face but it didn't diminish how famous of a face it was. Scarlett Johansson.
I had wanted to speak but stood in the doorway with my mouth ungraciously hanging open. She glanced over at me, finishing up her call seeing that I had returned.
"What's it looking like?" She asked matter of fact having missed that I was a little star struck.
"It's bad. There's a severe leak." I choked out the words. The news didn't land well and Scarlett cursed hard under her breath as she looked out the window.
Outside, the conditions had worsened severely, to the point that even if her vehicle was working, it would still be wildly unsafe, irresponsible and potentially life threatening to be out on the road. I could see she was looking for answers, a way out of this catastrophic mess.
"Is there a place close by where I could stay?" This was a last ditch attempt at clawing back some semblance of control.
"'Fraid not, the only place is above the bar on the strip which is a few miles down the road."
"You have a car don't you?" She really didn't want to be stuck here with me.
"Yeah, but there's no chance in hell we can make it through that!" I gesture to the blanket of snow tumbling from the sky outside the window. "Look, I can stick the heater in here, the couch pulls out into a bed, it isn't much I know." I was trying to help, even if it was only in the smallest possible way.
She breathed deeply and sighed, "that'd be great. I never thanked you for opening back up, so, thanks." She offered up a half-hearted smile.
Scarlett came with me, grabbing her luggage from the back of the SUV so she could layer up. The fold out bed wasn't ideal, half the springs were shot and it had an old, musty smell attached to it. In this scenario however, it was a luxury.
"Better than nothing," she said, taking a seat at the foot of the mattress and testing out the resistance, "are you going to be okay? God, I didn't even think, you should be taking this!" Scarlett shot back up, eager to return the favour and offer me the bed.
"No, please, honestly. Your car will need fixing for when this all clears tomorrow. I should have the parts here and all. I'll be fine."
"Really? No you can't, look whatever it costs I'll pay up double, you really don't have to do that for me."
I got the sense that Scarlett, whilst she was being honest, was used to people, men especially, bend over backwards for her. I'll be honest, putting myself in good steadings with a celebrity such as herself would give me that little ego boost that we all craved.
Politely, I left her too it, adding only that she could find me in the main part of the garage if she needed anything else. Without the aid of the good heater, which I'd chivalrously left with Scarlett, the old one was on its last legs and barely produced much in the way of any warmth. I'd zipped my overalls up to my neck and stuck on my beanie. Working on the car kept the heat pumping through my body which I was grateful for.
Having been wholly focused on the problem, I was in the midst of reassembling some parts and getting ready to put them back in her car when she appeared from the rear door, wrapped up tightly in a jumper and jacket with the hood up.
"I couldn't just let you work out here on your own whilst I was in the warm." Her breath created little clouds of vapour, just going to show how truly cold it was. "Mind some company?"
I nodded and she came in, sitting down in the passenger side front seat with the door open. As I toiled away we spoke. Scarlett was heading up north for an on location audition, of which she was very forthcoming with the details. Of course, having been in the industry for so long, she had her complaints and gripes but kept them to a minimum around someone, me, who saw it all as glitz and glam.
"How long have you been here?" The conversation turned to me, which wasn't going to be nearly as interesting.
"Since I left school." I said with my head under the hood, working a wrench to tighten a bolt.
"You grew up here?" The usual follow up, along with the likes of have you ever left? And You have to go see this place!
"Yeah, been here my whole life." All twenty eight years of it.
"That's really sweet." Not the admiration I was expecting.
"You grew up in New York, right?"
"Born and raised." She said proudly. "There's just - something about that place, unlike anywhere else I've been and I've seen plenty." A humble brag by all accounts but I figured she was only adding to the conversation.
"I've been there a few times, it can be a lot to take in," Scarlett smiled, "and the people, couldn't get a smile from them even if you paid them."
That brought about a laugh from the actress, "we aren't all that bad!"
"You're an exception to the rule, or maybe you're just acting all the time."
Another laugh that continued us on a path that delved into nonsensical discussions on a myriad of topics, the next linked in no way to the last.
I continued to work on the SUV for another thirty minutes until I was satisfied that come morning, Scarlett would be able to drive off out of here provided the roads were clear.
