American Next Wave by Stella Fawn Ragsdale

Author:Stella Fawn Ragsdale
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781408173084
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2019-11-23T00:00:00+00:00

Scene Two

The next day. Crystal stands on the sales floor of a Saturn dealership. Light background music. Charlie stands next to her, holding a couple of glossy spec sheets.

Crystal … The five-door XE has a hundred and thirty-eight horsepower engine, five-speed manual transmission, cruise control; it’s virtually the same as the XR except that it doesn’t have the sixteen-inch alloy wheels or the advanced audio system, or the sport bucket seats with driver-side lumbar, which I’m thinking you might actually need since you say you do a lot of driving. If you want to save fifteen hundred dollars, hey, in this economic climate, I completely understand. But I see that iPod in your pocket so I know you’re a man who likes his music, and I gotta say, having all those audio controls right on the steering wheel is an amazing feeling: it’s like, you’re heading down the highway and you’ve got the whole world right there …

Charlie How did you learn so much about cars? Did your boyfriend teach you?

Crystal I don’t have a boyfriend.

Charlie I was here about a month ago, but I didn’t see you then. Are you new?

Her smile abruptly vanishes.

Crystal Did you work with a salesperson the last time you were here?

Charlie A girl named Tammy.

Crystal Oh no. I should …

I should probably get Tammy for you then.

Charlie You trying to get rid of me?

Crystal Oh, God no! It’s just that we’re really not allowed to take each other’s customers. It’s really complicated, but basically, you see, we work on straight commission –

Charlie How about we just pretend I never told you?

She looks around.

I don’t want to work with her anyway. I’d rather work with you.

Pause.

Come on. ‘The customer is always right.’

Crystal I know, but –

Charlie Shhh, I love this song:

A new song surges forward on the dealership soundtrack: ‘Sea of Love’, or something equally lush and romantic. They listen to it together for a while.

I swear I’ve seen you somewhere before.

Crystal I used to work at the Ford dealership.

Charlie No, that’s not it.

Crystal Well, I just have one of those faces; people always think they went to high school with me.

Charlie You were in diapers when I was in high school. Pause.

Anyway, I filled out the form.

He hands her a thin Lucite clipboard.

And here’s my card.

She looks at it.

Crystal … ‘Transformative Motivational Speaker’ – wait a minute. I know you. I went to that free talk you gave at the Holiday Inn.

Charlie See, there you go.

Crystal I still have my notebook. And I remember when I got home, I made a list of all my bills and put it out to the universe, just like you said.

Charlie And look at you now. You’re doing great.

Crystal Well …

You know, that same week, I did have a couple of parking tickets and when I went to pay them, they couldn’t find one in the computer, so it was free.

Charlie We call that ‘synchronicity’. The more you use the tools, the more it starts to happen.

Crystal I don’t know.

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