Chapter 11 — The owner of the car shop behind the school gate

Vy decided to teach her friends how to mend tattoos on Friday afternoon, even though the question about her father's signature was still lingering in her mind. Ms. Van allowed the garage to be used after the basketball team left. Khoa set up two long tables into a small counter, placed on it a basin of water, rubber patch, sandpaper, glue and three different types of pumps.

Quynh Chi posted a piece of paper on the post: "Ten minutes with your car." Huy burst out laughing after reading it. “Sounds like a clinic.”

“The car also has problems,” Khoa replied. “It's just that it doesn't know how to say words.”

The lesson started with a very ordinary mistake. Class 10C3 Hoang brought a bike with soft rear wheels, but insisted that he only needed to pump it up really hard. Khoa removed the wheel and put the inner tube in the water basin. A series of bubbles emerged near the valve base.

Vy told Hoang to mark the location with chalk. She took a piece of sandpaper and gently rubbed around the hole to make the surface rough enough. Khoa stood next to him, not grabbing the tools. "Put the patch on and don't peel it off right away. Count to thirty. Glue takes time."

“I thought it would be okay to just stick it.”

“Many things break because people are impatient,” Khoa said.

Vy glanced at him. “Is this sentence about cars or about people?”

“It depends on the listener.”

The friends laughed. The air is less tense. Vy realized she liked sessions like this: everyone standing around a broken object, no one asking who was rich or poor, just asking what it took to get it running again.

It was a girl's turn to bring the car urgently. The girl confessed that she left the car in the rain for a whole week because she was afraid her parents would scold her. Chain, brake hard, lock stuck. Vy and Khoa divided the work. Khoa handled the chain, Vy adjusted the brake cable. When her hand was stained with a streak of black grease, Quynh Chi held out a tissue, but Huy was faster and handed over the class' advertising tablecloth.

“Where did you get this?” Vy asked.

"From the introduction of the electric vehicle project. Using it as a rag is also more useful."

Huy joked, but when he turned away, he looked at the logo longer than usual.

At the end of the session, Khoa gave Vy an old inner tube that had been cut into a lanyard. “Don't walk away. You can keep the power cord or the kickstand in place.”

“Are you taking advantage of everything?”

“No. Only things that haven't been asked what else they can do.”

The words reminded Vy of the garage. A place considered messy and old, waiting to be replaced with billboards. She wrote in the notebook: "Reevaluate before replacing."

When everyone leaves, Khoa checks and locks the door. Vy stopped and asked about the vocational training he had mentioned. Khoa said there was a garage on Truc Street that was accepting weekend apprentices, but if he went, he wouldn't be able to help Mrs. Man enough hours.

“Do you want to go?”

“Yes. But wanting is not the same as being able.”

Vy was about to say that her father could support her tuition, then remembered Khoa's words: don't turn your help into a rope forcing others to be grateful. She changed the question: "If the class schedule was arranged, what would you choose?"

Faculty of thinking. "I'll try it. Just once is fine. At least I know if I'm suitable for it."

On the way home, Vy sent her father a small proposal: buy tools according to a public list, do not attach logos, prioritize repair over promotion. He only answered with one sentence: "You are making it difficult for yourself."

Vy looked at the screen, typed and deleted many times. Finally she texted: “I just want to know what everything is decided on.”

That night, she opened the desk drawer, took out the garage key and placed it next to the family photo. On one side is the road my father has outlined, shiny and straight. Across is the oil-stained backyard where a cheap patch can keep someone from falling. Vy doesn't know which side she will choose yet, but she knows that tomorrow someone will still need her to bend down and look closely at a wheel.

Monday morning, Vy saw that the registration form for the tire patching class had its corner torn off. Huy guessed someone wanted to destroy it. Quynh Chi checked the trash and found the piece of paper next to a milk carton. Maybe it was just pulled by the wind. They did not make hasty conclusions, but replaced it with a registration board with a plastic clip.

Khoa wants the lesson to start with safety: wear gloves when using glue, don't pump too high, and don't place the cake near an electrical outlet. Vy added the section "talking when you don't know". A friend asked if that question was redundant. Khoa replied that even the best car repair person sometimes has to call someone else.

The first class was more crowded than expected. The two of you stood waiting, making the aisle narrow. Vy tried letting them sit on the steps, but the steps had no shadow. Huy ran to borrow a canopy, then realized that the canopy was blocking the guard's view. They switched to a large umbrella and put the problem on the list.

An inner tube has three holes. Hoang said it was probably due to nails. Khoa said he wasn't sure. He checked the inside of the tire and found a piece of steel wire. Vy teaches everyone to gently touch the tire with their bare hands, but reminds them to turn the tire slowly to avoid cutting their fingers. The girl sitting next to me said she was scared. Vy gives you goggles and stands next to you until you find the piece of steel.

“See?” Khoa said. “Fear is less when you know where it is.”

Vy asked him if that question applied to the project. Khoa replied only if they were willing to measure every dark corner, not just the illuminated part.

After class, the group takes an inventory of glue. One tube is clumpy, one patch is expired. Huy suggested quitting immediately. Ms. Man said she could keep it as a sample for the classroom, but it had to be labeled "not for use". Vy wrote a large label to avoid anyone picking it up by mistake.

Khoa said Truc street garage had a mechanic who always kept broken items for students to guess the cause. Vy likes it that way. She suggested creating a "bug corner", each week displaying a broken part with a question. Quynh Chi asked if she could take pictures. They make a rule not to write down the name of the person bringing the items.

At the end of the day, Vy's back was tired from bending for too long. Khoa gave her a low chair and told her that the coordinator must also be protected. She teased him to worry about her more than the car. Khoa replied that people with back pain cannot repair any car.

Vy laughed, but added a vacation item in the calendar. She understands that a club is only as long as the people working in it don't have to prove it by burning out.

Before leaving, a friend suggested organizing a quick tattoo mending contest. Khoa shook his head, saying speed was not the goal. Vy changed it to a "find the correct error" challenge: each team gets a car with a different problem, and must ask the user before removing it. Huy stopped the timer, but the highest score went to the team that scored enough warnings.

Vy's team discovered that a noise did not come from the wheel but from the kickstand. Her teammate wanted to remove it immediately, so Vy asked the car owner where and when he heard the sound. The answer helps them avoid removing it by mistake. Khoa nodded, then pointed to the board: "The correct question saves more time than a quick wrench."

The test ended with every team taking longer than expected. No one wins absolutely, but everyone knows one more sign of failure. Huy wrote a summary table, removed the ranking section, and kept common errors. Vy sees that cooperation does not need to turn into a race to be attractive.

When she closed the door, she looked at Khoa's hand. A small scratch on the index finger has dried. She handed over a band-aid. Khoa asked if she was doing a health check like a car check. Vy said at least people can tell where the pain is. Khoa said that she should ask before pasting.

Vy asked honestly. Khoa nodded and accepted the tape. The two laughed, then wrote down their break time on tomorrow's calendar.

On the way home, Vy told Quynh Chi about Khoa being invited by the garage for a trial. Quynh Chi asked her if she was going to ask her father for tuition support. Vy said no, unless Khoa inquired and agreed through transparent channels. Quynh Chi nodded, telling her to start distinguishing between help and intervention.

Vy messaged Khoa about the vocational training opportunity, without giving advice, just asking what handover part he needed from the team to support him. Khoa replied: "Let me think. Don't decide." Vy put away her phone, seeing a short sentence could mean trust.

The next morning, Khoa replied that he had talked to the garage. He wanted to try for a week, but still needed the team to hand over the duty schedule. Vy asked if he needed anyone to go with him. Khoa said he doesn't need someone to make the decision, he just needs someone to read the list again so he doesn't miss anything.

They sat at the board, checking each item. Vy realized she was not the center of every choice, and that feeling was more comfortable than she thought. Khoa signed the handover form, then gave her the pen. She signed on the side, as the controller, not the owner.

The handover has eight items, from keys to garage phone number. Vy read each section slowly, asking Khoa what he wanted to fix. He also has the right to refuse shifts when there is a test and the right to report absence without giving a personal reason. Quynh Chi reviewed it and said it made the calendar more fair.

Khoa folded the paper and put it in his pocket. He doesn't know how long the garage will accept him, but he knows the garage is no longer dependent on one person. Vy looked at the board and saw that the void he left had someone else learning how to fill it, not in the same way as him, but in their own way.