Ray loosened the final screw and the rusty plate fell straight down on his face. His nose burned and his head felt as if it was shattered and turned blood red.

"OUCH!!!!" Ray's entire body shuttered and he lifted the plate up above him and tossed it on the floor. Then the ring of rainbow wires fell down on his face and wrapped around his skull. A tangled bunch of vintage electrical cords. Just what Ray wanted at the close of his day.

He tried to shake his way out of them but he was seemingly tied in them. He shrugged deciding that he was probably going to have replace the wires anyway and slowly chopped them apart with his pocket knife.

Today just wasn't Ray's day and he knew it. He picked up the plate and wires and pushed off the rear axle, spinning out from under the old car. He stood up and set the objects on a table in the corner of the garage. He turned on an overhead light and found a flimsy, poorly bound catalogue that was left on the table.

He looked over the wires and the plate, hoping to find a serial number of some kind.

DAIHATSU SST-12151788

"Daihatsu...Daihatsu" His eyes squinted as his greasy fingers rolled over the many listings of the catalogue. As he flipped the pages they tore near the binding but Ray could care less.

"Daimler-Chrysler...no" and page 349 was left behind.

Page 350, DAIHATSU.

DAIHATSU SST-12151786.

DAIHATSU SST-12151787.

DAIHATSU SST-12151788 "BINGO!"

Ray traced the name in the far left column to the rest of the chart. "Now to find the wire's calibre." Ray enjoyed this, the technical part of his job. The part where he could tinker with the nervous systems of his dilapidated patients. He was on the verge of finshing the surgery when something in the air distracted him. He looked up from the page and out of the window. The wind blew hard against the glass pane but that was not what had attracted his attention. There was a strange charge in the air but he couldn't figure out what it was.

Just as he began to look back down at the page the light flickered and went out.

The bulb burst.

The window shattered.

There was a deafaning boom.

The blast overwhelmed Ray and he took a step backward. Air billowed past him and his hair flew back. Slowly, as if in slowmotion, the sharp, triangular shards of glass soared threw the air and dug themsleves foxholes in his flesh, thouroughly intrenched, and cut deep into his eyes. He fell flat on his back, hitting the floor hard as blood trickled from his wounds.

The pain was intense and he was shell shocked for a long moment. His spine quivered and he clenched his teeth trying to constrict his muscles and sit up but his body did not cooperate. He resigned to his situation and relaxed, feeling very tired.

He was blind and partially deaf as the garage grew incredibly cold. He stretched and his the hair on his neck stood up. Time passed and he began to hear a loud ringing in his ears. He could make out sirens turning the corner around the garage, the wind blowing through the open window, and now a metalic like clicking against the floor. It grew closer and had a slow beating pattern.

The last thing Raymond Barnett felt was Buck's wet tounge against his face. He felt safe.

The ants were still stuck to Ray's shoes as he fumbled down the hallway like a bumper car. He reached the end of the hall and began stumbling down the stairs. His journey down the 7 floors to the ground level passed quickly as he could see little and was acting on memory. Ray would often count things while carrying out his daily routine and had luckily memorized the number of stairs per floor. He was Finlay able to put that memory to use.

When he reached the last step he halted his advance and allowed his mind to catch up with his feet. His vision suddenly was bright white and then focused and adjusted normally. He realized where he was again and began to head to the door but was suddenly pulled back by a firm hand on his shoulder.

"WHAT IN BLUE BLAZES!!!" Leo's voice boomed and echoed throughout the Atrium of Thallow Flats.

Ray was quiet and began to feel woozy again.

"Where've ya bin boy?!?" he clarified his first statement in the hopes that Ray would answer.

Ray still didn't answer.

Leo pulled him by his shoulder and had him do a complete 180 degree turn so that Ray was now facing him. The muscles in Leo's face loosened and a look of pity came about him.

"Just look at cha!" Leo said. "You've had a rough time of it then?"

Ray managed to nod his head in the affirmative. "Nasty Lunch" he sighed.

"Well, you come on then we've still got a car in the shop fer ya." Leo slapped Ray lightly just enough to wake him from his stuper. "Come on! Git!"

Leo started out from the Flats with a still zombie like Ray in tow. He couldnt help but feel like a small child in trouble with his parents on the long akward walk to the shop and though he was no longer feeling sick from the soup he now felt noxious from his new situation. His fear was unfounded though and when they finnaly got to the shop Leo let him off the hook.

"I don't know whats goin on with you and I dont wanna...you just fix that Henry's car before morning you hear." Leo said. That was quite unlike Leo to say and Henry knew that it was his boss's form of sympathy.

"Yeaaaa..um, Yes sir" He said as hs shuffled over to the old, beat up car. Bending down to begin his work.

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Ray sputtered and shook his head as the thumping grew louder and its source came closer. He looked around and through a very small and blurry tunnel he realized he was quite small compared to his surroundings. That he could see anything was quite amazing as he could barely see his own feet, and what feet they were.

Small and slender feet that he was disgusted by but that strangely felt natural. Ray attempted to gain a better understanding of his environment wrenching his head left and right but couldn’t make out where exactly he was. It was like an ancient temple or medieval cathedral with very high, broad walls but the floor was a different texture and had the feeling of wood.

"How did I get here? What’s going on?!?!?" Ray wondered to himself.

Then the thud came back. His whole body vibrated to this beat from the ground that he was standing on. This is when he realized he was no longer himself because his body was anything but human. The Legs should have given it away but he needed to move around to get a feel for himself.

He noticed that he was now divided into three parts with multiple legs that all seemed strong and sturdy. This he only observed from his own feeling but not through the sense of sight that he had become so accustomed to in his human life. As he grew restless about his loss of vision the quakes advanced closer to him and that’s when he realized that he had been given a gift. He could smell perfectly.

This new finding would have to wait as he could now more clearly see the outline of the source of the racket. It appeared on the horizon and he could tell that it was an older woman in a large grey coat; she was of epic proportions. Ray stood in awe of this creature and couldn’t help but feel like a Lilliputian in the presence of Gulliver until he realized that this being could easily crush him without a thought. He awkwardly rushed toward the edge of the wall, tripping on unfamiliar legs.

Just as he got to the side of what he realized was a hall the giant passed. Content that it was safe Ray walked toward the middle of the hall but was soon assaulted by the sound of a falling object. It impacted just a few inches from him, close enough to knock the wind out of his tiny lungs.

After he calmed himself Ray galloped over to the projectile and took a whiff as his sight was useless at this close a range. He recognized the odor from his past as a type of bread but before further investigation was allowed his instincts had taken over and he was devouring the boulder of grain. He ate as much as his diminutive figure could allow and then his humanity seized control of his small brain and he tasted how disgusting his meal had been. He couldn’t hold it in and his pincer like jaws opened and expelled its contents. He shook his head.
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His body was tense and his head slammed against the floor as he woke up in a pool of his own vomit.

"Ughhh..." his eyes rolled and he struggled to stand up and wipe his head, "....what was in that soup?".

He stretched and absorbed the room. "Nothing like before, everything looks right."

He looked at the table; saw the overturned bowl on the floor, the spoon a few feet away, and the chair on its side.

Then he noticed the clock; the short hand was on the six and the long one on the twelve, it was dark outside.

The phone rang and began to rattle on the wall.

Ray bent over, then straightened his back again, causing beads of sweat to fly off his forehead.

He looked at the clock again and then put his hands on his knees and threw up.

He felt woozy and had a piercing headache. Ray needed help and wandered out of the apartment banging in to every available obstacle. As he entered the hall he saw a trail of ants surrounding some bread crumbs on the floor. He stepped on them.

"I'm Click...and I'm Clak...and together we're the Tappet Brothers and we thank you for joining us....." Was all that Raymond heard as the Pinto spit oil in his face.

"Thats it...I've had enough of this" Raymond thought as the NPR affiliate began its fund raising telathon. He slid out from under the car, got up and quickly yanked the radio's power cord out from the wall.

He then went on to shake his head wildly to get the oil out but then noticed that another sound had now filled the garage as his stomach emitted a ferocious growl.

"If I hadn't been so rushed this morning then I wouldn't be so hungry!"

Technically the end of car talk did signal the noon hour and therefore his lunch time but he rarely took that luxury as it required him to rub elbows with all the other people out for lunch.

Today he decided that maybe lunch was a good idea after all and sat down on the back bumper of the Pinto to think about what to do.

CRACK

The Pinto's bumper came lose on the end that Ray had his weight on and he fell to the floor.

"Gaul Darnit!!! wouldnt ya know!" he yelled loudly. The work on the Pinto had been fruitless so far and Leo had recently began bugging him to get it done with and now it was falling apart again.

He got on his feet and gave the Pinto a good look at, and then kicked in the other side of the bumper causing it to clang against the cement of the floor.

"Might as well give that new kid a clean slate to work with" He thought and a smirk came across his face. Might as well throw the new guy some of his work as he now had that Henry guy's car to fix.

Now what to eat? He pondered this question as he wandered out of the garage and down the street. He thought about the Diner but decided that he would much rather like to make his own meal at home. He was quite good at cooking as the death of his mother left him to often make his own meals.

He'd had Mac and Cheese last night and decided that he would like to have something a bit more complex for today's menu and then he saw the root shop, well the "Emporium" to be exact.

"Roots eh?" He thought as he looked into the new shop. There was an OPEN sign so he decided to enter.

He was immediately greated by an eager salesman type " Hello, Im Roots, welcome to ROOTS' EDIBLE HERB EMPORIUM, how can I help you on your journey today?"

There was nothing Ray hated more in the world than the overzealous salesman but because he was so interested in these roots he forced himself to stay.

"Um, yeah, can you show me some roots, I'm looking to make a quick soup, nothing all that complicated or expensive, just something that tastes good." Ray said to the man who called himself Roots.

"Sure, how about some Arracacha, that should work" said Roots as he motioned to a large Bin in the corner of the store.

"Yea um, just what I was thinking of, give me a few will ya?" Ray said as he pulled out his wallet. "How much I owe ya?"......

Ray payed his bill and trotted home to make a quick stew with the roots and get back to work. The nice thing about Leo is his long naps that allowed for extensive breaks from work, and today that break would let him fully enjoy his soup.

"How Am I supposed to make this?"

"What will this taste like?"

"Am I going to be Allergic?"

All of these worries ran throught his mind as he lit up the burner.....

"O Man...O Man...O Man" he thought as his feet devoured the steps his body moving fast as lightning down the creaking stairwell.

"I cant be late twice in one week....I'm on my Leo's last nerve as it is!"

He leaped when he got toward the bottom and stiffarmed the door wide open. His frantic dash was suddenly interupted by a short but stocky human wall.

"OUCH" his mind screamed as he tried to regain the breath that the collision had stolen. Then the smell hit him...that rotten eggs and mildew smell that had begun showing up in random places around Thallow Flats.

"Oh excuse me..." Ray managed to sigh, hands on his knees, gasping and staring at the ground "... didnt see you there".

Just a loud grunt "huh?!?...Yea, yea, ok" was all Ray heard. Then he looked up to see the creature he had had the misfortune to meet that morning. Taken aback by the oddity of this dimuntaive but somehow large person, Ray stagered and shook his head.

"Um well I had better be going" Ray somehow got out.

"Yes....you should" scoffedd the man. But Ray was already gone...left foot pumping then his right all the way to work.

He finnaly got to the shop and didn't see any signs of Leo as he walked past the Honda on the left of the shop.

"Smoooooth real smooth....got away with it again!" Ray thought to himself, content with his performance.

He saw someone up under the hood of the car but decided not to interrogate the newbie, best to act like he had been there the whole time.

Ray silently opened his tool box that was hiding under a pile of rags and slid under the Pinto that had been his project for the last few days....

Deep inside apartment 703 Ray's alarm clock shrieked and he tossed in bed, trying to find a position that would shelter him from its assault.

"One more minute of sleep and I'll be ready" he thought in the intoxicated logic of a person teetering between conciousness and slumber.

It had been a long night, not because Ray had hit the bottle again or run into any of his former associates, but merely from the worries. The worries that haunted his every waking moment. They've been keeping him up for days and his body was begining to show his exhaustion.

Suddenly a thump came from the wall behind him.

"No sense in making Ms. Sylvia anymore mad"he reflected as he heard the old woman moan through the wall.

He shook his lazy limbs and hoped out of bed giving the clock a shove to silence it. His feet were tangled in his bed sheets as he fell toward the bathroom turning on the light to wake up even more fully. The bright bulb blinded him but he managed to slap himself with some cold water from the sink.

"Thats better....now I'm awake" he thought.

But Ray wasnt nearly as aware as he would have liked as he stumbled out into the short hall that led to the small room that was a sad imitation of a kitchen.

His right hand grabed the crusty bowl and dirty spoon from the counter as his left reached for the bag of cold cereal. He gave the bag a violent shake and quickly poured some milk into the mix before taking a swig from the jug himself and throwing it back in the fridge.

He slid into a chair and began working on the heap of stale and somehow soggy cereal all the while staring blindly off into space. Then for some reason his eyes focused onto the clock above him.

"8:30...Hoofta I'm late!!!" he panicked as he realized how long his fight with his alarm had taken.

He bolted from the breakfast and quickly put on some jeans and his garage jacket from the top of his dirty clothes pile.

"I'm never gonna hear the end of this one!" he thought as he slammed the door and ran to work.

My Character

Raymond Barnett,
Raymond Barnett is a long time auto mechanic who has just become employed at a new shop. Troubled by a childhood of abuse and learning disorders he has spent much of his life an idler, leaching of his family living day to day with a cold indifference. Coming out of a halfway house from an alcohol addiction he is in a new town with a seemingly fresh start. Already very detatched, he often is just a long for the ride until lately. He has decided to alter his behavior and become more proactive and involved with others. He is also trying to expand his horizons and find new hobbies other than just fixing cars.
He wakes up late in the morning and quickly lets his dogs out before rushing to work. His hair still uncombed and his blue eyes slightly bloodshot he is paid to stay in the garage working under the cars right where he likes stay. He turns away social invitations from his coworkers with a gruff "busy" but is now strangled by his loneliness. He desperately is looking for new friends.