I wasn't close enough to read their expressions so I could not tell how cozy they'd gotten during the waiting period.
They conversed a moment more and then headed for their respective automobiles. Jack jumped in his first and fired up the engine before Anita was even settled. I had a moment's horror when it looked like he was going to back out and drive away before Anita even had a chance to crank her now-worthless engine. But thankfully, his mother had taught him some manners and he stood by, waiting for her to leave.
From across the street I could hear the grinding of her engine turning over without catching. She would grind it for about ten seconds, let it rest for five, and then grind it again. This went on for about four cycles before the abrupt cut-off of exhaust vapor from Jack's tailpipe signaled that he'd shut down his engine.
He stepped out and walked over to her door. She rolled down the window and a brief conversation ensued. She then opened her door and stepped out, allowing him to sit down in her seat. He cranked the engine a few times himself, as if the mere presence of A MAN behind the key would make it fire up. Finally, when it didn't, he walked around to the front and popped the hood.
The hood obstructed my view of the two of them while they peered inside but it was readily apparent that Jack knew his way around an engine compartment.
It wasn't sixty seconds before he stepped out from behind it, looking nervously around the street, peering up and down it, looking for the culprit that had taken Anita's coil wire. He spoke to her for a moment, pointed into the hood compartment, and then she too began to look around.
They quickly gave up looking for the culprit and turned their attention to looking under and around the vehicle, as if the coil wire could have just fallen off the distributor. When they didn't find it on the ground they searched the hood compartment. When they didn't find it there they began to converse again, this time with much shaking of heads and puzzled glances up and down the street. The conversation continued for a few moments and then Anita smiled at him, obviously thanking him. They walked to his car and he opened the passenger door for her (way to go Jack, I thought happily). She sat down and he walked across to the driver's side. A moment later his car started and they drove off.
Though I didn't know Jack at all, I know what I would have done in such a circumstance. I would have driven her to the nearest auto parts store and bought her a new coil wire, taking it back to the car and making a big show of installing it for her, making it look, of course, more difficult a job than it really was. I would then dramatically sit behind the wheel and fire up the engine, grinning sheepishly at the accomplishment of fixing the car for her. Hell Ma'am, it weren't no trouble at all. Of course she would be grateful to her knight in shining armor. Perhaps they would decide to go to dinner?
As they disappeared from my sight I extricated myself from the bushes and stretched, popping my stiff joints. I shook the accumulation of snow from my clothing and then headed for my car.
"The rest is up to you Jack." I mumbled to myself, smiling as I walked. "Take advantage of Fate."
Overnight the snowstorm we'd been experiencing developed into a full-scale blizzard. The wind tore through the Eastern Washington area, driving the snow before it. When I awoke Thursday morning it was still going strong. A look out my window, at the icy, covered streets, at the snowdrifts more than eight feet high in some places, told me that I would not be going to school that day.
My confirmation of this came when I went downstairs to breakfast and found Dad still in his pajamas and robe, his face unshaven. As a teacher Dad was probably even happier than the students were when they closed school for the day. After all, he still got paid for it. Mom too was lounging around in her pajamas, her work had apparently decided to make it a holiday as well. I was not as happy. That meant there would be no lunch with Nina that day.
"There's lots of good news today." Dad told me as I sat down at the table.
"How's that?" I asked him, digging into the bacon and eggs Mom had prepared in honor of the non-work day.
"Looks like you were right on the mark about the latex thing." He said, sliding a section of the newspaper over to me. "Take a look at this."
I picked up the section and looked where he was pointing.
FEAR OF AIDS LEADS TO NATIONWIDE GLOVE SHORTAGE read the headline. It was an Associated Press story, which meant that it had been printed in newspapers all over the country. The text of the story told of hospitals, fire departments, and ambulance companies all ordering large amounts of latex gloves in response to fear of disease and a federal OSHA mandate that all health care providers wear gloves on every patient contact. Every patient contact! This was exactly what I'd been waiting for.
"Out of sight." I said, grinning.
"So this is going to make you some money on those stocks, right?" Dad asked.
"This is going to be like hitting the lottery." I told him happily. "Actually like hitting it twice."
"Twice?" He enquired, putting his paper down.
I nodded. "There's two aspects of stock ownership in a case like this." I explained. "First of all there's profit. Selling all of those gloves is making a lot of money for the companies I've invested in. That allows me dividends because as a partial owner of the company, I'm entitled to a cut of the profits. The second aspect is the price of the stock itself. Now it's gone steadily upward since I first invested in it but not dramatically by any means. The increase merely reflects those wise investors who have taken the time to research the company and note the recent increase in profits. But now that this story has appeared in the paper, all that will change. Everybody and their mother will know that latex is going to go through the roof and they will all rush to buy stock in it. That is going to drive the price of the stocks through the roof, therefore making my holdings much more valuable."
Dad had long since learned not to question my wisdom on the workings of the stock market. After all he saw me researching it and studying it every day.
"So how much are we talking about here?" He asked.
"It would not surprise me," I said, "If the value of my stock doubled by the end of the year and tripled by the end of the following quarter. Plus I stand to receive a healthy dividend check."
"Amazing." He whispered. "And I thought you were throwing your money away."
"This also means that I need to start putting my income somewhere else, to find another trend that's about to take off."
He looked confused. "Why is that? Shouldn't you continue to invest in latex?"
"No." I told him. "As the stock goes up, putting further money in it will be futile. Remember that I now have to pay the inflated price for more of the stock. What I need to do is keep my assets in latex right where they are and let them go up. But my future income needs to be put into other places; places that are cheap now but that are likely to rise in the future.
That's what investing in the market is all about."
"So what are you going to do now?" He asked.
I smiled. "I've been planning this for quite a while now." I told him. "The money from the latex investment will probably peak about the time I'm ready for college. It should be enough to get me enrolled and carry me through the first year. From now on my paychecks will be invested in something with slower, but steady medium-term growth. Something that will rise considerably over the next few years instead of months. I'll continue to dump money into those until they rise to a point where they've reached their peak of growth. It'll build me up capital for the big move I'm planning to make in a few years."
He shook his head. "What do you mean? What are you going to invest in now?