Acting Natural

Merry Christmas! I don’t have a Christmas-related drawing to post, but here’s a short story I wrote and a sketch that goes with it:

“The warm air of soft mingled voices and the pleasant smell of fried food was broken suddenly when Jesse barged in, a low scowl on his face and a chip on his shoulder.
“What can I getcha sweetie?” Lynn asked cheerfully as he marched past her.
“I’m not here for food, Carol,” Jesse growled.
Lynn merely shrugged, “suit yourself.”
Jesse stopped and scanned the small constituency of the diner, none of whom seemed to be too concerned with the cat after his initial entrance. He looked over the crowd until the sight of Susan idly chatting with a customer caught his eye. She immediately noticed Jesse and gave a guilty and nervous smile.
“You,” Jesse hissed as he stormed over. Before Susan could say a word, Jesse grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the restaurant.
“I guess I’m taking my break,” Susan laughed nervously and waved to the confused although disaffected customers and staff.

Jesse led her around the side of the restaurant into the parking lot. “I knew I shouldn’t have left you alone! This blunder is coming right out of my paycheck!”
“I knew you would be upset,” Susan said flatly.
“How did you even- I just-“ Jesse paced in frustration.
“I didn’t do it on purpose! After the mirror broke off I even put it on the workbench where you would find it. I was being considerate!”
“Considerate people don’t waltz into an employees only area to chat with a mechanic about tea and whatever else before ruining an expensive car and leaving without telling him! Didn’t you think this might’ve come back to bite you at all?”
“If you don’t think I’m not worried too you’re mistaken, mister! That car is my boss’s, and when he sees it I know you’re gonna tell him it was me!”
“You better believe I will! Now you’re gonna help me fix this mirror before anyone else finds out.”

The two crossed the street to the garage and Susan lead the exasperated Jesse to where she left the mirror she accidentally broke off of the 1953 Mercedes Benz.
“See?” Susan pointed confidently at the workbench by the lockers she left the mirror on. “I left it right…uh oh.”
“‘Uh oh’? What ‘uh oh’?” Jesse asked impatiently.
“I swear I put it right here. Did you move it? Somebody must have touched it,” the skunk was getting increasingly frantic as she looked around wildly and flung open cabinets and toolboxes.
“That’s just terrific. You lost it!” Jesse accused Susan, who was now crawling on the floor under the workbench.
“Get up! Get a hold of yourself. You’re not going to find it if you can’t find your own wits,” Jesse helped her off the ground. Her hair was ruffled and she had collected a few oil stains on her clothes. For a brief moment Susan felt relieved before Jesse added, “and since you lost it, it’s your responsibility to find it, so it’s best that you keep yourself collected.”
Susan frowned. “What if I don’t? I don’t think Mr. Moore would be very pleased if he discovered that you let a random woman into the workshop and didn’t even attempt to get her to leave.”
Jesse put his hand over his face; he knew she was right.
Just then, Frank walked in. “Hiya Susan. Hiya Jess. Hey since when’re we allowed to bring non-employees into the shop?”
“Yesterday,” Jesse spat sarcastically. “Don’t you have somewhere to be Frank?”
“As a matter of fact I do. I was supposed to be at the scrapyard looking for lightbulbs an hour ago. I got held up here filling out insurance forms…the missus won’t be very happy-“
“Well, good luck,” Jesse replied as he pushed him out the backdoor. Susan swiftly locked it.
“That moron doesn’t even know how to replace a lightbulb.”
“But he did just give me an idea,” Susan said, stifling a giggle at Jesse’s remark. “How much do you want to bet that he accidentally threw it away?”
Jesse sat down on a stack of tires, defeated. “That’s likely. And it looks like the scrap bin’s already been emptied.” Jesse folded his arms on his knees and threw his head down in dismay.
Susan thought for a moment, trying to conjure a solution. She leaned against the beige Mercedes which still sat in the center of the garage before realizing this was how she broke the mirror in the first place, and quickly stepped away from the vehicle.
Jesse was digging through his coverall pockets for his flask when Susan finally had an idea. “I’ve got it!” she said excitedly. “Your friend Avery, he runs a scrapyard doesn’t he? I can guarantee he’s got some old car parts there too. We can find a replacement before Mr. Dunhurst comes to pick up the car.”
“It looks like that’s our only option,” Jesse agreed. “We have to do this discreetly, and fast. The garage closes in an hour, and Rich is coming by to pick up the car tomorrow. I’m going to take off early; we can’t afford to wait around.”
Susan agreed, and after writing a quick note to Mr. Moore, Jesse and Susan hurried to Jesse’s truck and sped off in the direction of Gilhooly Scrap while the sun began to wane.

It was dusk by the time the pair arrived at the scrapyard gates; they were locked.
Jesse called to Avery, but couldn’t make out any light, and received no response. “He’s probably at the racetrack.”
Without hesitation, Jesse began climbing the fence, undeterred by the barbed wire. He was suddenly stopped by Susan tugging on his arm. “What’re you doing?! You can’t just break in!”
“It’s not ‘breaking in’ , it's climbing over. Besides, Avery is my friend, he’ll understand. Now start climbing or I’ll leave you here.”
Susan looked round at the pitch dark area that surrounded them and the many trees that blocked out any moonlight, and for all she knew, could conceal any number of frightful creatures. She relented and began climbing the fence as well. Jesse had already landed on the other side when Susan reached the top. She swung one leg over the barbed wire, only for her skirt to get caught; Susan lost her balance and fell face-forward over the fence into the dust, the caught fabric being torn in the process. Jesse helped her up, and she sighed, “I never signed out at work.”
“If we don’t hurry you’ll never sign back in,” Jesse replied.

Jesse handed the skunk a flashlight. “We should split up to cover more ground. I’ll look over here and you look closer to Avery’s house.”
Susan didn’t like the idea of splitting up, but the scrapyard was small, and there was more light over by the quonset hut that Avery lived in. Jesse rummaged noisily through old rusty barrels and piles of other junk while Susan wandered closer to the steel building. They both came equipped with burlap sacks to store what they could find in. She examined bits of scrap that lay on the ground, but failed to see any cars. The closer to the building she got, the more she wondered where the light was coming from. I guess he left one on? she thought.
She was just picking the mirror off an old bicycle that looked as if it had been run over by a train when she heard what sounded like a screen door closing. Jesse heard it too, and cocked his head towards the source. The night was suddenly filled with the sound of gunshots being fired in the air, followed by an indecipherable shouting. Susan and Jesse immediately sprang up and started sprinting for the gate. Tossing their bags over the fence, they hastily climbed over, tearing their clothes on the barbed wire once more. They threw the burlap sacks into the bed of Jesse’s truck and hurriedly started the vehicle, the sounds of gunshots still ringing in the air. Just as they pulled away, they could hear Avery yelling, “you aren’t getting away this time you crazy kids! I called the police!”

The two sat quietly for a few moments, shaken by the surprise.
“He’s at the racetrack is he?” Susan asked sarcastically at last.
“We got what we needed, that’s all that matters. He won’t even notice what’s missing.”
It was only now that Susan noticed how filthy and disheveled they both were; dirt and oil stains, torn clothes, ruffled hair. At this point, she just wanted to be home in bed. Glancing at the clock on the dashboard, she was dismayed to see that it was 9 o’clock, and they still had much to do.

They cruised across the railroad tracks and back towards the center of town when the sound of a police siren made them go pale. Pulling over to the side of the road onto the sidewalk, the pair anxiously waited for the officer to make his way to the driver side door. “Now Susan, it’s very important that you let me do the talking here. I’ve wormed my way out of situations like this before.”
Susan was shaking too much for Jesse to tell if she had nodded in agreement or not. Rolling the window down, Jesse was relieved to see that it was only Sheriff Walton.
“Good evening Mr. Walton, what can I do for you?” Jesse stuttered, as Susan was on the verge of tears.
“Howdy Jesse, Susan. Well, it’s perfect timing I catch y’all. You see, my cruiser’s been making this awful noise whenever I start to brake, and I was wondering if you knew what might be wrong?”
Lying, Jesse replied, “yeah, no, uh, I’d have to look at it. But I uh, I’ll tell you what, why don’t you take it down to the garage. I’ll personally look at it, free of charge.”
“Aw you don’t have to do that. I could fix it myself if I knew what the issue was. And isn’t the place closed at this hour anyway?”
Jesse gritted his teeth, muttering, “I insist.”
“Well, if you say so. I don’t care what anyone says, you’re a real standup guy.”
Jesse gave a wide, fake grin and he nudged Susan to do the same.
When the sheriff moseyed back to his cruiser, the two thieves sighed in relief. “I just hope he didn’t look in the bed when he passed by,” Susan said, solace in her voice.
They drove back to the garage with Sheriff Walton tailing them closely behind. When they arrived and stepped out of their respective vehicles, Sheriff Walton thanked Jesse again before issuing a warning: “on the drive over I heard over the radio that a theft was reported down at Gilhooly Scrap. Two car mirrors, a bicycle mirror, and a doorknob.”
“What’s the world coming to,” Susan said stiffly as she tried her best to maintain composure.
“Eh the new guy’ll handle it. Probably just a big misunderstanding. That Avery guy has always been a little on edge.”
“Very much so,” Jesse agreed nervously and forced out a chuckle. It wasn’t until the sheriff had left that they finally felt comfortable again.
“I guess Avery did notice exactly what was missing,” Jesse said candidly before taking a seat on the ground, laughing; Susan joined him. “Why on earth did you take a doorknob?” Jesse asked, still chuckling.
“I don’t know, I thought it was neat! Maybe I’ll install it in my house.” The two were finally sharing a moment of brevity. “Ah well, we’d better get inside and get this squared away. We’ll go in through the back.”
Jesse used his keys to sneak into the back door of the garage, being sure to only turn on one lamp instead of the overhead lights.
Emptying out their meager collection of junk (and setting Susan’s doorknob aside), they examined the Mercedes’ remaining mirror. “Lucky for us it’s a pretty clean break,” Jesse said.
The first mirror was the right color, but didn’t match the round shape of the original mirror. The second one was the right shape, but the wrong color. The bicycle mirror was the right shape and color, but about half the size.
“We were so close!” Susan cried.
“Wait a minute…” Jesse trailed off. He opened the garage door and a moment later pulled into the building with Sheriff Walton’s cruiser. “This thing has the same mirror as Rich’s car.”
“Do you think Mr. Walton’ll notice?” Susan asked doubtfully.
“If he didn’t think we were suspicious, I don’t think he'd notice the passenger side mirror being a tad smaller than it was before.”
Without further thought, Jesse unscrewed the mirror and transplanted it onto the Mercedes.
“Not a bad match eh?” He said proudly.
Susan sighed in relief and hugged the cat tightly.
“Okay okay, you can stop,” Jesse squirmed, prying Susan off him. “But thank you for helping out.”
“I had to!” Susan replied. “Don’t you remember? You threatened me into it,” she added with slight indignance.

A day had passed when Susan came back into the garage. It was her lunch break, and she wanted to check in with Jesse. “Has Richard come by yet?” She asked curiously.
Jesse looked annoyed. “Well, it turns out I heard wrong. He won’t be back for another week. But I’d say it’s a good thing we got this fixed before anyone noticed.”
“Oh…Yeah I guess.” Susan couldn’t help but feel slightly disappointed. “You know, we make a pretty good team,” she smiled.
“No, we don’t.”
Just then, the door to the office opened and Jackson walked in.
He was digging through his locker next to the office door when he asked, “Hey Jess, did you fix that mirror? I swore I saw it was missing…Figured it must’ve been Frank’s fault. Hell of a good worker but he’s about as coordinated as a tornado.”
Jesse and Susan turned to each other. Susan started laughing, but Jesse stood up, proclaiming, “that’s it, I’m going home,” before grabbing his keys and leaving the room.”

There is no context Jesse can smile in that looks natural.