The Tarnished Camaro

1988.

Chapter 1

The Car

As the wind blew in off the Pacific it brought its usual amount of moisture in the form of a dense fog. The fog was so thick today, that Peter was soaked within seconds of leaving his house to go to work. Besides making the whole world seem hazy and make driving hazardous, the fog drenched everything this morning just as thoroughly as if it were pouring rain.

Nearly every morning, the fog rolled in from the Pacific, was funneled through Yaquina bay and the Agate Beach into Newport, and was held there by the Coast range. This section of the Oregon Coast was known for its year around fog. Often, in the summer, when the fog would burn off, this stretch of the coast would become a dazzling place of beauty and the campers would emerge from the state parks, dotting the seashore, by the hoards. By early afternoon vacationers would cover the beach and the sky would be filled with kites of all sorts and sizes.

It was the memories of these beautiful summer afternoons that brought Peter and his wife, Edna to Newport to live. They had vacationed there nearly every summer for years. They had stayed in a little bread and breakfast overlooking Agate Beach called the Captains Roost. In the mornings they would walk the deserted beach through the fog and simply get away from people.

At that time Peter had been the senior pastor of a large fundamental church in the Portland area some one hundred odd miles northeast from this sleepy little resort town. Newport, a city of some eighty-five hundred, could not technically be called a sleepy little town, but compared to the hustle and bustle of the metropolitan Portland area, that’s how peter and his wife saw it. They had each bought a kite that they flew on those vacations to the beach. Edna’s was a Trilby, a triple decker with three fifty foot tails and Peter’s was a Boomer which sounded almost like a real jet plain when it was turned into the wind. The wind always blew in off the Pacific and made the Oregon coast a popular attraction to kite enthusiasts. While not as yet full blown enthusiasts, Peter and Edna had caught the bug and flew their kites as often as they could get some free time.

It was those summer vacations that had caused Peter and Edna to fall in love with the Newport that they saw every year. Vacationing every summer, however, didn’t prepare them for the other nine months of the year. The Oregon Coast has two seasons; summer when it’s wet much of the time and the rest of the year when it’s wet all of the time. It’s the second week of October and Peter is wondering, as he slides behind the wheel of their 98 Malibu, if he can stand another wet season in Newport. He had had to buy a new car last year. The wet, salty air had caused his old Buick to rust out almost over night.

They had moved to Newport a little over three years ago. He had resigned his position with the church, turned in his credentials to the District Superintendent of the Denomination he had belonged to for forty-four years and accepted a job from a friend he had met on those summer vacations. Accepting the position in Newport, was something they hadn’t really thought about much before they did it; resigning his position and relinquishing his credentials they had thought through and talked over completely for several years. They were in complete agreement, the ministry in an organized church was not what God wanted from them. Now, as he starts the engine on his Chevy, he wonders if they should have looked elsewhere for work before making this move.

It is the middle of October and the second month of the nine-month rainy season. Peter is thinking, as he drives down the hill towards the business district where JonMar Motors is located, only eight more months before the sun shines again. Jon and Martha Morris had befriended Peter and Edna on one of their first vacations to Newport. They attended the same Non Denominational church that Peter and Edna now attended. Jon has owned the local Chevrolet Dealership here in Newport for over twenty years. Jon had insisted, all those years ago, that his wife’s name share the name sign out front even though she rarely took part in anything to do with the dealership, thus the name, JonMar Motors. On their last vacation to this lovely wooded tourist town, Peter had shared his feelings about the ministry and the denomination he was affiliated with Jon, over coffee their last Sunday afternoon before returning to Portland and closing out another summer vacation. Jon had told him that when and if he made a move away from the ministry, he would give Peter a job selling new Chevy’s. Two months later Jon got a call. Peter asked him if he was serious about the job offer, and he said that he was. A month after that and Peter found himself selling cars for a living.

He was dubious, at first, to be associated with an industry that many people associated with flashy, pushy salespeople and less than up front business practices. He wasn’t flashy or pushy, and the dealership was as honest as any other business in the valley. Jon would never do anything even remotely appearing to be dishonest, and Martha, who was as straight laced as they come, would have straightened him out if she even heard a rumor of crookedness. Peter still questioned some of the industry practices, but Jon was very careful not to use these practices to gouge his customers. Most of these practices Peter had never heard of and was sure that most other people hadn’t either.

One was bumping the interest rate. The bank gives the dealership a flat amount for doing all the paperwork associated with an auto loan. This is typically $100 or more depending on the amount financed. However, the bank allows the dealership to bump the rates and receives half the difference. A bump of 3% can raise the total amount paid out of the customers pocked by a couple of thousand dollars of which the dealership gets half up front. Jon refused to bump the rates. He felt it was tantamount to stealing from his customers. Peter had to agree.

Another practice Jon was very careful to control in his business, though it was perfectly ethical, was the retail sale of Extended Warranties. These warranties normally retail for twice their cost. Jon believes that a business must make a profit, but not that you have to be greedy and gouge your customers. Jon’s policy is to try to sell an Extended Warranty but to make a modest profit instead of the huge profit most dealers make. Thus a warranty that would cost $1800 at many dealerships would cost $1100 at JonMar Motors, saving the customer $700. This $700 would go into the pocket of most dealerships.

Jon also refuses to sell the after market auto protection products. The new vehicle that the customer is buying needs neither a wax job nor the seats scotchguarded, and the application of these products is nearly all profit.

In some ways Peter loved selling cars, in others he hated it. He made a good living at it, but you never knew from month to month what you were going to make. Edna would ask if they could buy this or that and his usual answer was, I won’t know until pay day. He liked meeting and talking to people, although until he got acquainted with them, many of the people he met thought that a car salesman couldn’t be trusted. Looking at the whole picture, Peter knew that if the sun would shine a little more, he would be much happier, and so would his wife.

As he pulled in off the street he could see several of the employees standing next to the building under the delivery awning. He lost sight of them as he turned the corner to park in the employee parking area at the rear of the building. Once out of the car, instead of going into the building as he usually did, he went around the side of the building to see what was going on with the group of men gathered beside the building. When he rounded the corner, Jon looked up and spotted him. He walked towards Peter as he came up to the group of men.

Well Peter, it finally got here. Jon said with a grin that seemed to cover the lower half of his face. We’ve been waiting a long time for this baby.

Peter couldn’t quite see what it was that Jon was talking about, but he knew, none the less. It was the special Millenium Edition of the 2000 Chevrolet Camaro.

Each dealer got one of these special editions, except some of the larger dealerships that got two or three. Some of the larger dealerships would begin calling the small town dealerships, trying to buy this new silver Camaro from them. They would pay sticker price to the smaller dealers, knowing that in the city they could add three to five thousand dollars to the sticker price and people would still be willing to buy it from them. This car was a one of a kind vehicle and was offered on a limited scale for one year only. It would be an automotive collectable almost from the second it rolled off the assembly line. This car was worth some money and Jon knew it. Jon was not greedy, but he knew that the future of his business as well as the livelihood of every one of his thirty-six employees depended on the business’s continued profitability.

When he could finally see the car fully, he was indeed impressed. This special edition 2000, millenium silver metallic Camaro Z28 Convertible, must have come in last night. It takes a couple of hours to PDI (prepare for dealer inventory) a vehicle, and this one was ready and clean. The service department must have had the word from Jon to get it ready as soon as it got in. They did a good job on it.

It was so sleek it looked like a bullet. The bright silver was accented perfectly by the shiny black top and 17 inch chrome wheels only available on this special edition Camaro. Several of the employees crowding around the sleek car wanted to take it for a spin, but Jon explained that it was under the awning used to deliver a car to a customer, to keep it dry. It was going right into the showroom. As if on cue the door at the top of the ramp leading into the showroom opened, and the wash boy that had opened them propped them open with wedges of wood used for that purpose.

Jon got behind the wheel and drove the car through the propped doors. He maneuvered the car to the most prominent place in the showroom, the wash boy placed little squares of carpet just in front of the four tires and Jon pulled forward on to them. The bright overhead lights of the showroom made the car just shimmer.

Under the lights the car looked even more impressive. The metallic fleck in the Millenium Silver paint sparkled in the light and the sleek black top contrasted with the silver, making it look even brighter. Jon popped the locks on the top and pushed the button to lower the top. When it was sticking straight up he stopped it. Now the interior of the car could be seen as well as the exterior.

The seats were of plush black leather with six- way power adjustments. The door trim was black with chrome accents. And like the brochure says, the instrument panel looks like the inside of an F-16. The speedometer read to 150 miles per hour and this car gave off the aura that it could go that fast. The sound system was the unequaled Monsoon sound system with eight speakers that drenched the interior of the car with sound. This system had an am-fm radio, cassette player and six in-dash compact disc player, with duplicate controls in the steering wheel. The bold H on the leather handled gearshift knob showed to the world that this car had the six speed Hurst short throw transmission.

That transmission, coupled with the 5.7 liter, 310 horsepower V8 power plant under the hood and the high performance suspension, tires and steering, made this car a true racing machine.

Peter thought to himself as he walked around the car, Why would anyone in his or her right mind, who lived in Newport, ever buy a convertible? It was so wet most of the time that the high performance 17-inch tires would be worthless. You could never take the top down. And why buy such an expensive car in the first place, the wet, salty air would just rust it out in a few years any way. He did have to agree with everyone else though, It was a beautiful car.

When he got around to the side with the sticker price, he got a double shock. The sticker price for a loaded Z28 Camaro Convertible was between $28, 000 and $29,000. With the Performance Axle Ratio and the All Speed Traction Control System coupled with the special features of this special edition car, the sticker price was $29, 695. The second shock came when Peter saw the second sticker, It was a $4,000 Vehicle Adjustment sticker. That and the $114 undercoat brought the car to $33,809. Way too much for a car that didn’t hold 4 people very comfortably. Peter thought as he stood there looking at this one time vehicle.

Standing there looking at this shiny new car, a thought raced through Peter’s mind. He couldn’t help but compare this car to his feelings about the church he had for so long been a part of. In his early years as a pastor, just out of the seminary, the church appeared to be sleek and exciting, full of power and carrying a dynamic charisma that captivated him. But there had always been something wrong. The local, district and general church organizations had been so political.

He hadn’t been sure what it was at first but he knew there was something hidden deep that couldn’t be seen, a hidden agenda perhaps. As time went on, and Peter got more involved in the political workings of the organization, it became more and more clear that the church was more interested in it’s own promotion, preservation and power than it was in the advancement of the Kingdom of God. While not affiliated with any denomination, even the church he now attended seemed more dedicated to it’s own doctrine and governmental system than to promoting God’s work. And just like this car sitting in front of him right now, the church’s price tag was extremely high for what you got.

When it came to promotions and special projects, Peter had always believed that if it was God’s plan, He would supply all the manpower and money to get the job done. But on the other hand, if it were man’s plan, he would have to beg, borrow, and plead for both. Peter had seen only one church in his lifetime that approached this concept. He and his wife Edna had attended a non-denomination church in Wenatchee, Washington for a year while Peter did some special work in personal evangelism. If a need by one of the parishioners arose, it was simply made known. The need was soon met. If a need arose, or a program thought to be good, it was simply prayed about by the church board. If God provided the manpower and the funds, it was initiated; if He didn’t it was assumed not to be His plan but man’s. This was the fastest growing church Peter had ever been associated with.

This church had bible studies all over the town that far outstripped church attendance. If it was God’s plan they didn’t care if the people went somewhere else to church. Peter could remember several years before when he was appointed to be in charge of the counseling for a crusade in a large city. It was a farce. The pastors recruited to help Peter got into a squabble about who was to do what. They all wanted to make sure that they got their fair share of the new believers into their respective churches. After all, that was the purpose of this crusade, wasn’t it?

Like the church, this car had some hidden costs associated with it. The costs to operate maintain and insure this car were all going to be high. But then, if you could afford to buy this car, you could afford the other costs associated with it. Then there was just something, Peter couldn’t quite put his finger on, that didn’t feel right about this car. There seemed to be something hidden just below the surface that felt out of place. The feeling that Peter felt was ridiculous, he knew. It was the weather. Nothing felt right when everything was drenched with the salty tasting fog coming in off the ocean. Things would feel better this afternoon when the fog thinned out a bit. Maybe then he wouldn’t have this strange sense of dread about this new Camaro.

Chapter 2

Cathy

Peter and Edna were enjoying a cup of coffee with friends during the fellowship hour between Sunday School and Church. It was really only 45 minutes but it was still called an hour. Peter liked his coffee with cream and no sugar. Unlike most of the men in the room he didn’t care for his coffee too hot. It took most of the forty- five minutes for his coffee to cool to the point where he could drink it. For some strange reason he liked to pour the cream on, in this case drizzle the creamer into, his coffee and watch if swirl as he stirred it very slowly. It was a habit he got teased about a lot by those who knew him well.

Peter enjoyed the time to visit with friends, but to Edna, it was the highlight of the week. She was heard to say, on several occasions, that the coffee hour was the only reason that she went to church. The only thing that could brighten her week any more would be a surprise visit from the grand kids. She loved the children but was convinced that the only reason a couple had kids was so that they could have grand kids. Peter was standing to one side of the fireplace, which had a cheery fire glowing in the hearth, and Edna was off with her klatch of friends in another part of the room. This room was called the fireside room and was by far the most liked room in the church, at least by the adults.

As he turned to see who else might be in the room that he wanted to talk to a young woman came up to him and called him by name. When he and Edna first moved to Newport, everyone in the church called him Reverend Sullivan, but over time he had gotten people to drop the reverend. Most people in the church just called him Peter, but this young woman addressed him as Mr. Sullivan.

Could I speak to you for a quick minute, Mr. Sullivan?

Sure. Its Miss Davies isn’t it? He had seen her around church for a couple of months but didn’t know her. He and Edna taught an adult class but she attended Brian and Stacey’s Young Adult Class.

Yes, but please call me Cathy.

OK, it’s Cathy, but only if you will call me Peter. What can I help you with Cathy.

I know it’s Sunday and all, and I don’t expect you to do business on Sunday, but I want to buy a car. I thought that maybe I could make an appointment for tomorrow or sometime that would be convenient for you. I talked to my boss and I can take the time off to go buy a car.

Tomorrow would be fine with me Cathy, why don’t you come in some time in the morning. No, make it in the afternoon. It’s much more fun to try out a new car when the sun is at least trying to peek out.

Why don’t I come by at say 2 o’clock tomorrow afternoon? Will it take the rest of the day?

It might. If you are going to finance part of the cost of the car, we have to have time to get an approval back from the bank. We might even have to finish up delivering the car on Tuesday.

OK, then I’ll see you at 2 tomorrow. Thanks. With that she walked over to visit with her new friends. She had only been in town for a couple of months, and all of her friends were new.

She went to work the next morning, but her heart wasn’t in it. She loved her job at the aquarium. She was only 23 and had just finished the work on her Ph.D. that winter at Oregon State University in Corvallis, just 60 miles to the East of Newport. She had spent all spring and most of the summer working on and then defending her doctoral thesis on the affects of the various crustaceans on the ecosystem of the tidal pools on the Oregon Coast. She had gone to work at the aquarium on the first of August and her work dovetailed perfectly with her study at the university.

Cathy’s parents were fairly normal in most respects and of average intelligence. But it became evident at a very early age that their little girl was anything but average in intelligence. She was smart, no not smart, she was a genius. Her mother, who quit her job when Cathy was born so she could stay at home with her new baby, worked closely with her and as a result she could read and write by the time she was four. By the time she was six she could play some very complicated pieces on the piano, which was what her mother thought would be her forte in life. But her interest was to be science. She had been enrolled in a special school for the gifted at age five and, in the first year there, had out stripped all the other students near her age. Later on she was hard to challenge. She was smarter than any of the teachers.

She graduated from the gifted schools high school program by the time she had reached her thirteenth birthday, and was enrolled as an under graduate at Oregon State University. She was in love with the sea and fascinated by the continual motion and its affect on mankind. Perhaps this love was what molded her to choose her ultimate profession. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Biology and soon followed that up with a Masters and then a Ph.D. in Marine Biology and still another in Environmental Science. She believed that through science, man could overcome and clean up the polluted waterways of the world. Her study centered on the mutations that occurred in the different tide pools where crustaceans were trapped and lived out their lives separated from others of their species.

These crustaceans lived in a mini world for generations and evolved quite differently from other crustaceans of the same species that had been trapped in other tide pools, some of which were mere yards apart. These tide pools were kept alive by the constant movement of the ocean. The waves would renew these mini environments twice a day and kept nutrients and oxygen aplenty for the various species of living things in the pool. Cathy’s hope was to one day use her knowledge to harness the movements of the sea to clean up the bays and harbors that man had so polluted. Her hope was that the mutations of these various animals and plants could be introduced into the polluted systems and help in the cleaning up process.

Cathy was smart, but at the same time very naïve. She had never been very interested in a social life. She was so much younger than the other students in her classes that she found that she had nothing in common with them. They pretty much left her alone. Once she had discovered science, nothing else mattered to her. She had never had a boyfriend. She had never even thought about a boyfriend.

She was pretty and had a figure that most men would appreciate. Most men couldn’t appreciate it though because she kept it hidden behind lab coats or a pair or underarm high waders. She spent many late hours working first at the school and now at her own personal lab. The only time she ever dressed in anything but her work garb was on Sundays, and even then she wasn’t what you would call fashionable. Even though she dressed quite plain, when a person looked close it was very obvious that she was quite pretty.

Her work was perfect, interesting and fit her to a tee, but today she couldn’t concentrate on it. She was going to celebrate her new job and life with a new car. Not just a new car, but a special new car. Hers was going to be powerful, special and shiny. Hers was going to be THE car. She had driven by the dealership yesterday afternoon and had seen the one she wanted in the showroom window. It was totally her.

She arrived at the dealership a little early. When she walked in the front door a young man who introduced himself as Jerry greeted her. When she asked for Peter the young man looked disappointed. He looked around and didn’t see Peter on the showroom floor so he told her that Peter wasn’t available, but that he would help her instead. Peter walked through the hallway from the direction of the service department and saw her standing there. He walked over and shook her hand. Jerry abruptly turned his back on them and walked away without saying a word to Peter.

That guy sure didn’t want you to show up when you did.

Oh Jerry, he’s a skate. They do that at a lot of the larger dealerships in the city, but not too much here. Skating is the practice of stealing another salesman’s customer by either working another salesman’s customer as your own, as Jerry had just tried to do, or by stepping ahead of others in the rotation of customers on the floor. It is frowned on by all the good salesmen and doesn’t make for friendly relationships among coworkers. So Cathy lets find you a good car.

I already found the one I want. I want that one. She said as she turned and looked at the Camaro Convertible. Peter had to turn to see which car she was talking about.

Are you sure that that’s the one you want? She was young enough to be his daughter and he wanted to get her into a good practical car.

Yep, that’s the one I came here to buy.

That’s a pretty expensive car, are you sure you can afford it?

Well, I’ve been saving my money while at the university, and I don’t owe anything on the car I want to trade in, and besides I’ve promised myself that car from the time I learned it was coming.

Well, if you’re sure, we’ll appraise your car and see what we can do. You do want to test drive the Camaro first don’t you?

I know it’s the one I want but sure, I want to drive it. Peter pulled out an appraisal form and began to fill it out. When he had it filled out he took her keys and handed both