Chapter 15 — The owner of the car shop behind the school gate

Mrs. Man told the story of a car repair shop one afternoon when the power went out.

There are no lights, the garage is covered in a pale blue color from the football field. Ms. Van allowed the group to leave early, but Khoa still sat next to a teacher's old car. Vy stayed because she wanted to return the reflective tape. Huy and Quynh Chi went to buy candles, then came back with a bag of hot bread.

Mrs. Man brought over a pot of tea. She did not sit in the new plastic chair that Huy bought, but stood leaning against the rolling door, looking at the tools sparkling in the candlelight.

“Do you want to know why my mother and I keep that small shop?”

Khoa looked up. “Mom, you don't have to tell me if you're tired.”

“Some stories are easier to tell once than to keep them in your stomach.”

Mrs. Man started when Khoa was eight years old. At that time, her husband was still working at a factory, and the car repair shop was a roof made of corrugated iron next to the old school gate. People bring their cars in to have their tubes fixed, their chains replaced, sometimes just by pumping air. Money per day is not much, but enough to buy rice and books.

After a storm, the roof collapsed. Her husband injured his leg and was unable to continue doing heavy work. Mrs. Man plans to close the shop, but parents who take their children to school still knock on her door, asking her to fix their cars. A teacher asked the school to lend a corner of the garage as a temporary repair space, in exchange for helping students learn how to maintain it.

“The shop was not built by my mother alone,” Khoa said.

"Yes. So I have no right to say it's my own."

She named the people who donated something: the security guard for the tarpaulin, the janitor for the iron shelf, a former student who left behind a set of wrenches after going abroad, and Mr. Tu, a welder who repaired table legs. One year, the school planned to remove the roof to expand the car park. Students then made a map of bicycle routes and presented it to the council. The roof is retained, but the land loan is still only renewed each year.

Vy asked: "Did you ever think you would lose your store?"

"I think about it every day. But being afraid of losing it doesn't mean you have the right to keep it in any way. If this place causes danger or gets in the way of others, you have to fix it. But if people just want to replace it with something shinier, you have to ask: shiny for whom?"

Huy is no longer joking. He wrote that sentence on the back of the cost sheet.

Khoa told the story of how he damaged his mother's first car. He tightened a screw too much, causing the thread to slip. Mrs. Man did not scold him, she just forced him to take it apart and buy a new one with her savings. It took three sessions for the department to complete the repair.

“Mom said fixing something is like fixing a word,” Khoa said. "If you broke it, don't hide the mark. Look straight at it, find the right place that needs to be replaced."

Vy felt that those words touched on her father's story. She asked Mrs. Man if she trusted a big business.

"Believing the business or not is not as important as believing each clause. A good person can also sign an unfavorable contract if not read carefully. A bad person can also do the right thing because they are afraid of being seen. You need papers, not to guess people's hearts."

Quynh Chi placed four sandwiches on the table. Mrs. Man smiled, divided it evenly, and talked about how she once refused a large billboard because it covered her bicycle lights. "They pay five times more rent. But if students can't see the road, what can that money buy?"

Outside in the yard, the power turned back on. The neon lights make the tools look colder. Khoa stood up and checked the brakes on the teacher's car. Vy looked at Mrs. Man's hands full of calluses and the scratched silver ring.

“I can take a picture Is there a history of the store to include in the meeting?” Vy asked. “Only if you agree.”

Mrs. Man nodded. “Just take a picture of the old table. Don't turn her into a poor character for people to love. You don't need pity.”

Vy promised to record the times the shop made mistakes and the times it had to be changed. She understands that a real story is not a poster with only beautiful passages. It has bills, oil stains, debt, people who have left, and close calls.

When leaving the garage, Khoa walked next to Vy. He asked her if she felt that his mother's story made Van Hung's plan more difficult.

“It makes the plan more realistic,” Vy replied.

Khoa smiled. “I'm starting to understand why you don't leave.”

Vy also laughed. She wanted to say that she stayed for him, but that was too early. Instead, she asked if he needed a shop assistant this weekend. Khoa said if she's not afraid of getting her hands dirty, then yes.

“I'm the owner of the car shop.”

“Mistress must learn to replace the valve stem first.”

That night, Vy wrote down Mrs. Man's sentence at the top of the notebook page: "Shiny for whom?" Below, she added a line of her own: “And who will clean up the oil stains after everyone is done taking pictures?”

The next day, Vy asked Mrs. Man for permission to record the shop's history. She gave her a tin box containing old invoices, but told her not to take pictures of the customer's address. The discolored sheets of paper tell stories about changing chains, patching tubes, buying oil and paying off rice debt. Vy read each line, seeing a store that survived on small amounts.

Khoa did not want to put the bill on file because he was afraid people would pity his mother. Vy asked Mrs. Man, she said she could deduct the total number of years of operation and contributions to the school, regardless of income. She wants others to see the shop as a service, not as a display for a story of overcoming hardship.

Huy suggested drawing a timeline. He intended to use a prominent yellow color, but Mrs. Man chose the same old blue color as the car's frame. She said it doesn't need to be too new; History is not something that needs polishing.

They recorded the year the roof was built, the year a storm collapsed it, the year students campaigned to keep it, and the year Mrs. Man started teaching car repair. Each milestone has verifiable sources: photos, minutes, and words of people who participated. Quynh Chi marks points based solely on memory, so as not to turn the story into more solid data than it is.

A former student returned and told of having her car repaired by Mrs. Man for free before the exam. He is currently working as a technician in another city. He wanted to give him a new set of tools, but Mrs. Man said not to if he wanted to hang his name on the board in the future. He laughed and said he only needed the kit to be used.

Vy asked why Mrs. Man didn't accept the old advertising sign. She said at that time the shop had no money to rent a roof, but the sign covered the lights. She was afraid that one day she would receive enough money without seeing someone come to fix it.

Khoa sat next to him and said he was angry with his mother for refusing. Mrs. Man said it's okay to be angry, as long as you don't make decisions for your mother.

Vy thought of her father. Adults often tell them to work for their children's future, and to do business for the community. But future and community are very broad words. Without asking the person living there, anyone can claim to represent it.

In the evening, the group tried to incorporate the shop's story into the presentation. Quynh Chi cut a long paragraph, retaining Mrs. Man's words about the right to decide. Huy removed the portrait photo and used a photo of a table and a pair of gloves. Khoa reread and asked not to call Mrs. Man "a diligent mother"; He said his mother was also a worker, a shop owner and a teacher.

Vy changed the title to “One The service has lived at the school gate." She found it simple, but true.

When everyone left, Mrs. Man locked the receipt box, telling Vy if she became a business owner in the future, don't just learn how to make money. Learn to listen to people who may say “no” to you.

Vy nodded. She doesn't know what kind of person she will become, but knows that a question can stay with her longer than a logo. Outside the gate, Khoa drove a silver-green car. The car bell rang, not loudly, but enough for pedestrians to know there was a story going by.

Vy started writing a shop introduction, then deleted it. She realized that words like "warmth", "devotion", "overcoming difficulties" easily turn a workplace into a touching picture. She replaced it with the number of years in operation, opening hours, type of service and the right to refuse to be photographed.

Mrs. Man read it and said there was one thing missing: if the shop couldn't fix it, they had to say it immediately so the user wouldn't continue in danger. Vy added to the top of the page. Khoa said her mother always put the most difficult questions in the easiest-to-see places.

A former student brought an old car and asked to fix it for free because he was unemployed. Mrs. Man asked about the status, then clearly stated the cost for spare parts. That person only has one part. She suggested paying in installments, keeping a schedule, not calling it "help". Vy saw how she kept the dignity of her customers and understood why the shop existed for so long.

Khoa said at garages they often give discounts using membership codes, but the codes require registering a phone number. He wanted to find another way. Quynh Chi recommends paper cards, or no card if customers state their own needs. They tried it for a week, found the process was slower but didn't create a guest list.

Vy asked her father if there was a similar system in Van Hung. He said the company always needs data for warranty purposes. She asked if that data could be separated from marketing. He said yes, but it had to be designed from scratch. Vy wrote the question into the Open Garage proposal.

Mrs. Man looked at her taking notes, saying she didn't need to turn every word into a project. Vy replied that she was just afraid of forgetting. She said if you forget, ask again, don't write it yourself for someone else.

Khoa drove the car to the gate and called Vy. She put the notebook in her pocket and ran after it. The road ahead is not shiny, but the silver-green car moves very smoothly. Mrs. Man stood in the shop, waved, then turned back to clean the welding table.