"Yes. I'm Flo, but who the hell are you?" She looked over to DS. "This is Tracy. My neighbor, the guy the Butcher almost—" "Butchered," Gram chimed in, impressed. "Right. That's me." "Didn't recognize you. Well then. Good to meet you. Now that we've got that mess straight, let's head home. I've got a nice chocolate cake waiting on the table." Before they walked to the ol' Nash Mechanic, trailed by media stringers, Tracy dashed into the men's restroom. Gram pulled DS close in for a confidential. "What happened to that adorable Cindy?" "You mean Mindy?" "Whatever. It’s just a word. But I thought for sure she was the one." "We'll see Gram. It's …show more content…
Nobody's perfect, DS." "You're right on that one. Nobody's perfect, Gram."
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Twenty minutes later, they were on I-44 in the good ol' Nash. "Coolest car ever!" Tracy sat in the backseat as the old gem chugged along. "This was my Daddy's last car. I swore on his deathbed I'd treat it like my baby 'til the end." And Flo had lovingly cared for it all these years putting on only minimum miles although infiltrating it with the smoke from hundreds of cartons of Camels. "I've never been in such a cool car." Tracy peered out the window watching the flat fields go by. "You an' me gonna get along just fine." Gram pressed in the lighter and pulled the Camel from behind her ear. "Hey, what about the nicotine patches? You got the patches, right? They came, right?" Gram lit up. "Of course they came, but it's just not the same, Dickie. It's all in the regimen. No one knows how I look forward to searching for my smokes, lighting up, watching the beautiful twirls of smoke. I tried. I did try." Gram looked up in the rearview mirror. Tracy was successfully dodging the clouds of smoke in the backseat. "You alive back there, Tracy?" Tracy nodded. "See? No big