The Solar came abreast of me. I stood straight and smiling as it began to note my statistics. It flashed a 23 when it was done.
Not so good. That put me in the 23 percentile rank of its desirability. The next car, a rhinestone Ford, gave me a 28. I was rated 22, 31, 14 (by a Galaxy), 27, 35 and 30 by the next six cars. That was the way it went for the whole procession. I received the highest rating, 58, from an experimental model Proton that was no longer in production, but I knew it was rating everybody higher and I was pretty gloomy.
Imagine my surprise when my name was called out as one of the possible choices. I went into the broker's office and was told the Proton would select me if I would get rid of all but ten years of my Thunderflash contract. That meant I had to find someone to take my car and 27 years of my contract, since I had been paying for three years of the 40. The price of the Proton, the broker told me, was scaled down to a 30-year contract because it was an off-model.
But who would take my heap with a 27-year contract attached to it? The broker said Grinning Gregory might go for five years, just out of the goodness of his big, big, big heart. I wouldn't get that kind of a deal anywhere else, the broker said.
Maybe I wouldn't, but that didn't do me much good. I needed someone to take 27 years.
Harry! Why didn't I think of Harry before? He didn't have a car yet. Skinflint Harry didn't want to sign the standard 40-year contract for a car and he had been shopping around for second-hand cars. Besides, good old Harry knew how crazy I was about Jenny. He had even taken her out a couple of times.
I gave Harry an ache on the telephone and told him I'd be right over. Then I ached the garage and the mechanic told me he could get my Thunderflash in pretty good running condition again, even though he couldn't promise anything permanent. I caught a helibus to my friend's apartment.
"Harry, old pal, I've got the chance of a lifetime for both of us."
Harry eyed me suspiciously. "How's that?" he asked.
"Well, here's the deal. You know my real fine Thunderflash? You said it was a sharp car. It is. It's a first class car. But ever since that slight accident, I've had just a wee bit of trouble with it. Not much, you understand, but it's niggling enough to annoy my girl, Jenny. You remember Jenny, the girl you used to go with before I cut you out? Ha! Ha! Anyhow, Jenny wants me to get another car. A newer one."