Stolen

“How are you going to get your Nova back?” Stacy asked.

“I’m going to steal it from the police.” Justin said.

“What? That’s crazy! You can’t do that!”

“Look, it’s your fault it got impounded in the first place. I told you to take it easy and don’t do anything stupid. You were doing sixty in a thirty-five! If you weren’t speeding, they wouldn’t of pulled you over.” Justin turned his attention back to the road and guided the Firebird back into the lane. He concentrated on the road ahead. He was warm in his leather jacket, jeans, and boots. Stacy dressed for the weather in her shorts and tight tank top. Her long brown hair tied up in a ponytail.

“You said it corned like it was on rails. I wanted to see…”

Justin glanced at Stacy, and she looked down, avoiding his gaze. Justin drove in silence for a while, then turned left onto his street, getting closer to home. “Well, did it?”

“Did it what?” Stacy looked confused.

“Corner like it was on rails?”

The corners of Stacy’s mouth turned up in a smile. “Yea, I took the corner at sixty. I palmed the steering wheel just like you showed me. The suspension didn’t roll one bit. I never drove a car like that before.”

“It’s built for the track. Nick got it from one of his junky friends and I traded Nick a nickel plated Mossberg shotgun for that Nova. It didn’t have an engine or transmission when I got it, so I put the ones from my Malibu in it.”

“Why do you have to steal it, though? Can’t you just get the title from Nick?”

“Nick doesn’t have the title. His junkie friend has it, and he is in jail right now.”

“Aren’t you worried about Nick’s friend just taking his car back?”

Justin looked at Stacy and shook his head no as he looked back to the road. “We’ve only been dating a couple months, so you don’t know Nick the way I do. His word is gold. Nick told me he would get me the title when I gave him the shotgun. If he has to break that guy’s legs to get that title, he will. I just can’t rush him.”

Stacy looked shocked at Justin’s words. “Do you have other friends like Nick?”

“Nooo. Just Nick. The rest of my friends have normal jobs like me. Nick and I go way back.”

“You don’t talk about him much.”

“The less you know, the better.”

Justin pulled up to his house. An older single story home on a corner lot with a detached garage. His 1973 Oldsmobile Cutlass sat in the driveway next to his 1972 Chevy 4x4 pickup with four-inch lift and thirty-five inch mud tires. He parked his 1977 Firebird next to the Oldsmobile. The 1976 Malibu sat in the yard with a for sale sign on the windshield. He got out of the Firebird, his leather jacket creaking. Stacy met him at the front of the car, and Justin hugged her.

“I’m sorry I got your Nova impounded.” She looked up at him with love.

“It’s OK, I’ll get it back.”

“Are you going to steal it tonight?”

Justin looked down at Stacy, smiled and kissed her. “Silly girl, if I steal it from the impound yard, I’ll never be able to race it. The police are going to give me the keys.”

She smiled, then got serious. “But you don’t have the title. It’s not in your name. They will never just give it to you.”

 He thought Stacy didn’t believe him. “I’ll tell you about it inside” Justin took Stacy’s hand, and they walked into his house.

The next day, Justin and Stacy were driving to the Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles. Justin stopped at the red light in the left turning lane just outside the parking lot of the DMV. Justin looked at Stacy. She was biting her lip and twirling her hair around her finger.

“This isn’t going to work.” Stacy said.

“It’ll work.”

“Why can’t you just wait until you get the title from Nick? Why do you have to do this today?”

Justin sighed. “We already talked about this. Storage fees at the impound lot are two hundred per day. It could be weeks before I get the title. I won’t be able to afford the fees after a few days. If I don’t get it out of impound, eventually, they will auction it off.”

The light turned green, and Justin drove into the parking lot.

“But you have three other cars and a truck. What is so special about the Nova? It’s not worth going to jail.” Stacy pleader her case.

Justin parked the car and thought about his deceased dad. “It’s the engine.”

Stacy crinkled her brow and squinted her eyes. “What about the engine? I don’t understand.”

Justin thought about his fondest memory of his dad. “When I was sixteen, me and my dad rebuilt that engine and put it in my first car, a 1975 Monte Carlo. I wrecked that car a few years later, but I salvaged the engine. My dad passed two years ago, and that engine is the only thing I have from him.” Justin looked at Stacy with seriousness. “I have to get it back.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know...”

“It’s OK.” Justin got out of the Firebird and walked into the DMV. He strode to the desk with all the forms, looked for the title transfer documents, and pulled one out from the stack. There were three attached sheets, a white sheet on top, a yellow sheet below that and finally a pink sheet, which was the one he would need for the police. He took the form back to the car.

“How are you going to get your car back with that?” Stacy asked as he sat down in the driver’s seat.

“This is a title transfer form. I’m going to fill it out and use the pink copy to get my Nova back.”

“Is it really that easy?”

“Not really. I won’t be able to get this copy stamped by the DMV because I would have to show them the signed title to get a stamp. I’m hoping the cops won’t notice.”

Stacy looked skeptical. “I don’t know, sounds risky…”

“It’ll work. I have all the information I need. I had to get the VIN number and license plate number for the insurance. That’s the only things the cops care about.”

“What if they notice it does not have a stamp? Won’t they arrest you?”

Justin finished filling out the form and ripped off the back page. Then he looked at Stacy. “It’ll work,” Justin started the engine and drove to the police station in silence. He parked and left it running.

“Take the Firebird down the block to that gas station and wait for me there.” Justin pointed to a gas station they passed. “If I come out with the Nova, just follow me home.”

“And if you don’t?”

“It’ll work.”

Justin got out of the car, watched Stacy drive down the block, and started walking to the police station. He stopped at the door, took a couple of deep breaths, and went inside. He walked up to the desk, a bored officer behind it.

“I’m here to pick up my Nova.” Justin laid the pink paper on the desk.

The officer grabbed the paper and read it. “The Nova?”

“Yep.”

“You transferred it today?” The officer asked.

“I just came from the DMV.”

“I need your driver’s license.”

Justin handed the office his driver’s license. The officer looked at his license, looked at the pink slip, and then looked at his computer screen. He looked at Justin. “Wait right here.”

The officer got up and walked to the back. Justin wasn’t sure why the officer left. He looked around and noticed a couple of officers coming down the hall. They were approaching him. He got nervous. The two officers were getting closer. Just as they got to Justin, the desk officer came out of the back. He had a couple of other papers in his hand.

“I had to make a copy.” The officer handed Justin his pink paper and license. “That will be four hundred fifty dollars.”

The two officers from the hall walked past him and went outside. Justin let out his breath. He knew he should not push his luck, but he was feeling confident.

“Four fifty? It’s not even been twenty-four hours yet.”

The desk officer looked at him with irritation. “The impound fee is two hundred dollars per day. It came in yesterday. It is still here today. That’s two days, in case you can’t add. Then there is the fifty-dollar processing fee. If you want our car back, it’s four hundred and fifty dollars.” 

Justin sighed, got the cash out of his pocket, and counted out the money. He put the cash on the desk. The officer took it and handed him a receipt.

“Take this out back to the impound lot and give it to the guard on duty. You have a nice day.”

Justin smiled. “Thanks, you too.” He walked out the door, got his car from the impound lot, and drove home.