[center][color=AFEEEE][h1]Mortimer Ward[/h1][/color][/center]
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[center][h3]Friday, June 1st. 11:30am[/h3][/center]




The warm sunlight traced across the concrete slab that was formed the floor of the garage. As the sun had climbed the middle aged man sitting in his garage let the sunshine warm his legs through his work jeans. Really he should have gone into work but that hadn’t quite happened. With a slow tap he worked an amber glass bottle up and down the length of the plastic arm of the chair he had erected in his garage. 

It was a slow day, the kind of languid day that made him thankful that he was somewhere that would become home. Eventually. 

It amazed him that this was the same sun that had turned his skin to blister and battered at him like the fist of an angry God. Here. Here it was soft and warm like Helen had once been. Another drink from the bottle fought the memory back. The man hated drinking to fight back the memories but it did help. Turning over his shoulder her peered back at the lathe that took up much of the garage. It had sat silent since he had moved it in but it wouldn't remain so for long. 
The sound of a car pulling into the driveway next to his pulled him out of his thoughts. Standing he walked to the open garage door and looked out. There was a blonde in her car sitting in the driveway. Mort watched as she sat there...and...sat there. Frowning Mort took another drink. After several minutes of the behavior she finally got out and went inside. 

A Reese child. Funny enough it turned out the Reese family was something of a pillar in Millington. Apparently he’d actually met their parents years ago, his uncle had a picture with him and them in it. It was somewhere in with all of things he’d packed out of his uncle's office. As he stood contemplating another of the Reese children returned and went tearing into the house. Pursing his lips he finished the cider and tossed it into the recycling bin in his garage.

The summer was just starting so no doubt they would all be in and out. It was really a shame about their parents.  With the death of Ophelia Reese the family had crumbled and then taken at turn for the absolute worst with their father and youngest child vanishing.  With another heavy sigh he looked over at the car sitting in his driveway. 1967 Chevy Impala, it wasn’t even close to being in working order but he needed a project and this was it for the summer. Hopefully it would be done by the middle of July. An inventory of the car had revealed the parts he needed to order. Mort had ordered them two weeks ago and they were still sitting untouched in the garage. 

Wrinkling his nose he finally made up his mind to do something with the day since it was clear her had no intention of making it into Millington Mechanics today. Rudy would be fine running the shop for the day. The older overweight gentleman had worked for Alexander when his uncle had run the shop and had been happy for the work when Mort had reopened the shop. Turning to collect his rolling tool box and rolling board he kicked the backboard to the front of the guided the tool chest over to it. Rolling up his sleeves he popped the hood of the car and leaned into it to start working. Not twenty minutes later the sound of a car approaching cause him to poke his head out from under the hood to peer like a nosey neighbor. The town was getting to him it was all too clear. [i]Flower delivery?[/i] and at the lawyer's house too. Despite having been in the town for some time he had rarely actually [i]seen[/i] the middle aged blonde mother who was Millington’s star Council. After a few seconds of pondering he went back to trying to get a hose off of the engine block to replace it.