The garage area looked strange, empty as it was. Funny, Junior thought, I never remember seeing it without any one actually here. No mechanics rushing to and fro, no marshals directing traffic, blowing whistles, trying to make order out of chaos and attempting to keep people from getting run over by race cars as they headed back and forth from the track. None of the privileged fans, those who knew "someone" who got them access to the garage area, milling about, getting in the way, always getting in the way.

     According to longstanding rules, children ten and under were not allowed in the garage area. Junior remembered being on the other side of the fence watching all the activity when he was a child. Occasionally, his father would carry him into one of the garage bays for a close-up look, but the vast majority of his youth was spend looking in from the other side of the fence. He could remember the excitement as he watched the men working on the cars. The anticipation, anxiety, always wanting to jump in and be a part of the action. The sights, sounds and smells became as much a part of his life as crayons were to any other child. Even as a young child he knew, a garage area was his life, the center of where he belonged.

      He thought back to his eleventh birthday. The first place he wanted to go was a track and once there, he entered a garage area for the first time, by himself, on his own two feet. It was on that day that he felt he’d endured a rite of passage and was now a man. He could now stand at the very center, the very heart of his world. In the garage area, all the sights sounds, smells, were to him, the heartbeats of racing.

     But now as Junior slowly made his way in between the rows of empty garage stalls, all was quiet. The heartbeat was silent.

     In the fading light of the day, he could see nothing in the garage stalls but cobwebs. He walked slowly, listening to the sound of his footsteps as they echoed off the walls. Weird man, weird, he thought.

     On the far side of one of the stalls, Junior saw an old rusty toolbox. He stopped then looked around. The toolbox seemed to be the only thing in the entire garage. He slowly made his way towards the far side of the stall and looked at the toolbox.

     It was obvious that it hadn’t been used in quite some time. He brushed away the cobwebs and dust from the top, then opened the uppermost drawer, it squealed in protest as he did. The tools inside were rusted, un-usable. He slowly began to close the drawer, as he did he saw the glint of metal outside the garage stall on the other side. He took a moment to focus his eyes, then realized he was looking at an outstretched arm, slightly bent at the elbow. He could see nothing else as the arm trailed off behind the concrete wall of the garage. Junior had no idea who, or what, he was looking at, he knew only that he’d been warned that he might face danger. He slowly, carefully and as silently as possible re-opened the top drawer of the toolbox and quietly picked up the biggest wrench he saw. Feeling the rust coming off in his hand, he slowly wiped the wrench on his leg, then gripped it in his hand as tightly as he could. The entire time, his eyes never left the sight of the arm across the stall. Junior raised the wrench in his hand and began to creep along the stall towards the outstretched arm.

     The wrench felt as though is was slipping slowly from his sweaty hand as he stepped towards the opening on the stall. He began to see more of the arm, it slowly become more visible the closer he came. Beads of sweat began to form and run down his forehead, stinging his eyes. He got to the edge of the wall and could now trace the entire arm upward to the shoulder and could tell that whatever it was faced away from him. Junior drew in a breath then leapt out of the garage to face whatever waited for him on the other side of the wall.

     The metal arm was attached to a metal figure of a man shining in the fading light. It must be a statue, he thought, as he slowly lowered the wrench.. It was slightly taller then Junior and had a face of silver, the lower jaw protruded out farther than the top one, giving the face a familiar look, although one Junior couldn’t quite place. On it’s head rested a hat that said "NAPA" across the front. The statue seemed to be frozen in mid-stride and the arm Junior had seen from inside the garage looked to be reaching for something.

     The statue seemed crudely built with a squared torso, made from what appeared to be an old fuel can with a fading "Union 76" label still partially visible, although upside down in the center. Each leg of the statue looked like 2 old "catch cans" stacked on top of one another and joined at the knee. The feet were covered by torn shoes with a "Simpson" label on each of them.

     Junior paused then looked to either side of the statue, slowly. He reached out and touched the torso with his free hand feeling the cold metal, then remembering that he still held the wrench in his other hand, he gently reached out and tapped the statue on the nose, it made a hollow sound that seemed to echo into the distance.

     "Ouch!"

     Junior jumped back a step when he heard the muffled voice. He looked at the silver face of the "statue", it hadn’t seemed to move. Junior then looked around to make sure that no one else was close by. He then walked around the "statue" slowly, carefully scrutinizing every inch of it. He gripped the wrench tighter in his hand. He reached out and using the forefinger of his free hand tapped on the metal chest three times, the taps made a hollow metallic sound that faded into an echo. After the taps had faded away, Junior was startled by three metallic taps, these sounded as though they came from the inside the can.

     "Hey, wait a minute," Junior said as he stepped back," Is that y...I mean, are you, um, alive?"

     "MUMMPH!" Came the muffled reply, again Junior saw nothing on the face that betrayed even the slightest movement.

     "Oh, now I remember!" Junior said," Now where the heck is that oil can?"

     Junior began to look on the ground around him, then the "statue". Seeing no oil can, he went back into the garage to the old toolbox. He opened the top drawer and began to place the wrench back into it. He stopped, then realizing it might come in handy, stuck it into the waistband of his suit. He rifled through the drawers of the old toolbox, finding nothing. He then looked at the final compartment at the very bottom of the box. When he opened it, there was an old blue and yellow can laying there with the words "WD-40" on it. Junior laughed, picked up the can shook it, found it to feel almost full, then turned and headed back outside.

     He stood facing the strange statue. Junior pushed the tiny red plastic straw from the side of the can into the spout.

     "Okay, now let me see...hmm, oh now I remember." He said.

     Junior held the can out and placed the tip of the red straw at the corner of the jaw on the silver face of the statue. He then drew in a breath and pushed the nozzle down, the can responded and Junior held the nozzle down until the oily liquid began to run down the side of the silver face. He then moved and completed the same task on the other side of the jaw, then he stood back.

      The statue stood...silent. Junior looked down at the can then touched the end of the red straw, the substance was indeed oily. ‘Okay, he thought, maybe that was getting a little too crazy.’ He let the can fall to the ground, then looked at the statue.

       "Later...man, or whatever the heck you are," he said with a smile. He then turned and began to walk away.

     "Gawlly mister...please don’t go yet, you just got here!"

     Junior stopped dead in his tracks. Slowly he turned. The silver face looked the same as before, except the face now had a smile.

     "Please sir, please, would you please spray my arm?" This time the mouth did move. The jaw on the silver face of the "statue" now moved up and down, while everything else still seemed frozen.

     "If you’ll just spray my arm, I can finish the rest and you can be on your way...please sir, I sure do hate to trouble you but, I’d be much obliged."

     "This is entirely too crazy," Junior said in an almost matter-of-fact manner. He walked to the "statue", or whatever it was and began to spray the oil, first on the elbow, the arm now moved at the joint of the elbow.

     "Oh yeah, whew! Boy howdy does that feel GOOD!" The statue said," The hand, please, hand, please, oh yes that’s it, right there...now my shoulder. Please? Ooh that’s it, YES, you ‘da man sir, that’s it thank you!" The statue began to move it’s fingers opening and closing it’s hand, then moved it’s arm up and down, everything squeaked as it did. Then the statue reached out and gently took the can of oil from Junior. "I think I can finish now, sir, if you want to go on your way."

     Junior didn’t resist when it took the can, he simply stood back, folded his arms and watched.

     The first thing the statue did was point the can of oil directly at it’s silver face and begin spraying, first it’s ears, then nose, forehead, and finally right into it’s eyes. Almost at once the face became animated, the nose wrinkled up, the ears wiggled and the eyes moved around, looking this way and that, the lower jaw seemed to protrude out even more, still Junior couldn’t place the familiar face.

     Next came the neck, then the other arm, from the shoulder down to the elbow and finally the fingers and hand.

     Now the legs, from the top to the bottom.

     After it was finished, the statue moved, although slowly at first. The squeaking begin to lessen with each movement. The WD-40 would be used to spray certain areas that seemed to need more attention than others, by the statue every few moments. Finally the statue stood erect. It looked and Junior and smiled then stretched out it’s hand.

     "Sir, I really do appreciate you helping me out like that...I mean I don’t know how long I’ve been..."

     Junior held up his hand and stopped the statue in mid-sentence.

     "Wait right there, I think I’ve heard this all before..let me see: caught outside in a rain storm, rusted up and why if you only had a ....hmm what was it..."

     The statue slowly lowered his hand and looked at Junior with a sideways glance, "How do you know all this?" It asked.

     "Well where I come from there’s this really famous movie and in it..."

     "What’s a movie?" It said.

     Junior stopped what he was saying and looked right at the statue. He put his hands on his hips, " You mean to tell me you don’t know what a movie is?"

     The statue simply shook it’s head.

     "Well then I guess we better start with the basics...do you have a name?" Junior said.

     "I think it’s, well it’s um, wait... ah wait, here it is!" It removed the hat from it’s head and handed it to Junior. He turned the hat over and looked at the black writing on the underside of the bill...and laughed.

     "So then that must be your name, "Junior chuckled,"Gomer"

     Junior shook his head and laughed," So, ‘Gomer’, don’t tell me but you were left out here in the rain, let me see how’d it go? Oh yeah and you need a heart."

     Gomer cocked his head and looked at Junior," Sir, excuse me, but...what are you talkin’ about?"

     "Nothing, doesn’t matter. Anyway, tell me your story."

     "Well, sir, I don’t really know what ‘kinda story you want to here...but"

     Junior put his hand up, "First off quit calling me sir, the names Junior and I want to know how you got here and..."

     "Hey, wait a minute!" Gomer’s face seemed to light up, "You look like, ain’t you...are are you a,a driver?"

     Junior sighed then nodded his head slowly.

     "Gawlly...it sure has been awhile since I saw one of you guys." Gomer looked around, "Man, I don’t how long I’ve been standin’ in that spot, seems like forever, it seemed to me it was just after ‘they’ showed up."

     "Who’s they?" Junior asked.

     "Why them other drivers, man they didn’t need no crews, or mechanics, or well nothin’!" Gomer looked down at the ground, "It wasn’t like it used to be." His voice seemed to trail off.

     Junior sighed, "Alright, why don’t you start from the beginning." He said.

     "Well, I was ‘made’ by a crew to help out with the race cars, back along time ago, when they would race all the time and well sir, when the times were good, man they was good.", Gomer smiled, " We’d get a bunch of us together and fix them cars up, then they’d get out there and race...why I tell ‘ya, I could tune a race car so sweet, man it’d be drippin’ sugar!"

     Gomer sighed, put his hands on his hips and screwed his face up, he looked as though he was confused, "Then one day, it all changed. The cars didn’t come around like they used to once a week, only every once in awhile and the drivers...man, they were mean! They wouldn’t ever talk to anyone, just walk to their cars on pit road. Mean, mean, mean! It was a awful sight too, the day they..." his voice cracked and tears started to form in the corners of his eyes.

     "Hold now, take it easy...everything will be alright, stop them tears, heck you’re libel to rust up again." Junior stepped towards the metal man and reached his hand towards his shoulder with the intention of providing comfort to him.

     It happened so fast, Junior had no time to react. The metal man snatched Junior up by his collar. The next thing Junior knew he was looking down at him.

     "Hey, you ain’t one of them mean drivers...are ‘ya?" Gomers voice sounded deep, dark and foreboding.

     "No, no..."Juniors voice sounded shaky." C’mon man, I’m a good guy...now put me down.’

     The metal man hesitated a second or two the gently lowered Junior to the ground," I’m sorry, but if you could’ve seen what them guys did..." The voice had returned to normal.

     "Tell me..."

     "There used ‘ta be a lot of others like me, mechanics, we knew everything ‘bout how to work on cars, but one day them mean drivers came along and, well every time one of us would try and help ‘em, why them drivers would just look at ‘em weird and they’d just ‘poof’ be gone. Durndest thing I ever did see...Well anyway, one day I looked around and saw that everyone else was gone...’cept me. So I just stood out here in that spot so’s they’d figure I was a statue or somethin’. Hummph, ‘reckon I stood in that spot so long that I just rusted up...probably still been there if you hadn’t come along." The metal man looked down at his hands, "Now I don’t reckon there’s anything for me to do."

     Junior looked at the strange metal man standing before him. With the southern drawl the man had in his voice and the emotion he’d seen, the metal man seemed almost human. But yet he wasn’t. Junior shook his head.

    "You ever heard of the Wizard of SOL?", Junior said.

     Gomer looked up into the air and thought for a moment, "Naw sir, don’t reckon’ I have."

     "Well, I’m on my way to see him, see if he can send me back to my home...wherever that is, you’re more than welcome to come with me. Don’t guess there’s much here for you." Junior smiled.

     "Hey!," Gomers face lit up," Maybe he could find me a job to do, man that’d be great! ‘Cause I sure would love to be turnin’ wrenches again! Hey, um Junior, you think he could find me a car to work on?"

     "I don’t know, maybe. I guess we’ll never find out standing around here..c’mon then let’s go." Junior turned and began to walk away from the garage on the yellow pit road.

     He didn’t notice that the metal man wasn’t behind him at first. Only when he looked back over his shoulder to say something did he notice his absence. He stopped and turned around.

     A metallic creaking sound echoed from the garage bay. Junior knew what it was before he even saw it, he sighed, put his hands on his hips and waited.

     A moment later, Gomer came out of the garage pulling the old rusty toolbox behind him, "Cain’t go anywhere without my toolbox," Gomer said with a smile.

     Junior simply sighed, then turned and began to walk.

     The creaking sound of the toolbox was the only sound heard as they walked along. Junior was leading the way, the metal man following about ten feet behind.

     The yellow pit road wound it’s way through the empty infield. "How strange," Junior thought, "Just on the other side of this place, there’s houses, those little people and...here, but here nothing." Junior turned and looked over his shoulder, "What do you know about the ‘Snaf’?"

     "The who?", came the reply.

     "Those little people who live on the other side of the garage area." Junior said.

     The creaking stopped, Junior stopped as well, then turned and looked at Goober.

     The metal man was staring into space, after a moment he looked at Junior, "You mean them little bitty fellers’ that watch the races? Heck I never paid much attention to ‘em they were always on the other side of the fence on race days."

     "Well then, "Junior said, "I was wondering why they don’t live...oh heck, never mind." Junior turned and continued walking.

     The creaking of the toolbox started up again, Gomer just shook his head as he looked at Junior walking. "This driver fella’ may not be mean, but he sure is weird", he said quietly to himself.

     They stood before the entrance to the tunnels leading under turn three and out to, where they didn’t know. Junior had hesitated for only a moment before continuing. He had to stop again when he realized the squeaking had silenced. He sighed then turned around.

     Gomer stood staring at the tunnels with his mouth slightly open. His eyes were wide.

     Junior smiled, "You scared?", he asked.

     "Man I have never been much further than that garage area over there, much less outside this here track and now you want me to follow you into there and to the ....the, out there?" Gomer pointed towards the tunnels.

     Junior started walking again, he looked over his shoulder, "I got to go this way to get home, follow this yellow pit road through here and if you want see about gettin’ you a car to work on, you better get a move on it.", he said.

       The metal man simply stood at stared at the tunnels.

     Junior was almost half-way through the tunnel before he heard the creaking of the toolbox echoing off the metal walls behind him. He smiled and continued on.

     He stood on the other side of the tunnel and looked at the landscape outside the track. Although he found the scenery kind pretty, there really didn’t seem to be that much to see. There were fields of white flowers on both sides as far as the eye could see. The yellow pit road stretched on into the distance in front of him towards what appeared to be a forest.

     Junior had seen pictures of the Black Forest in Germany and the forest in front of him, about a half a mile distant, reminded him of those pictures. It looked dark and foreboding in the fading light of the day. A crow ‘cawed’ in the distance and a cold damp breeze blew into his face, it only added to the impending sense of doom he was feeling.

     Behind him the creaking of the toolbox grew louder as the metal man came out of the tunnel.

     "Gawwwly", he heard Gomer whisper. The creaking of the toolbox stopped, "I ain’t never seen anything like...."

     "Neither have I, "Junior sighed and put his hands on his hips, "Well we have to go through that way," he pointed into the woods, "But I don’t like it, don’t like it at all."

     The sun was almost ready to set and there seemed to be a light misty fog forming in the low parts of the landscape. He felt another cool, damp breeze on his face. Junior looked around, it seemed that the only thing he could see for miles was the track behind him and the woods in front. He sighed.

     It was then that he noticed a tiny wisp of smoke curling up from just inside the treeline. He squinted and tired to bring it into focus. Junior thought he could see a tiny orange flame flickering in the twilight. Another cool blast of air swept across him and suddenly the flame looked very inviting.

     "Okay, here’s the deal, it’s getting dark, it’s getting cold and we need a place to hole up for the night," Junior pointed at the wisp of smoke, "Let’s head down towards that fire, maybe we can stay there for the night, because it sure is getting cold." Junior rubbed his hands together,      "Okay?" He said.

     "If you say so sir," Gomer replied. He had a matter of fact look on his face.

     "Quit calling me ‘sir’", Junior said. Then he wrapped his arms around himself," Ain’t you cold?"

     "Sir,um I mean’Junior’ um, I’m well, I ain’t exactly human, so I don’t really get cold." The metal man said, "’Course, cain’t say that I wouldn’t mind if I did feel something, anything." The metal man looked down at the ground, "Did you ever smash your hand on a wrench? You know have it slip and bust your knuckles?" He looked back at Junior.

     "What?" Junior said, "Did I ever, c’mon we don’t have time for..." but the moment Junior looked at Gomer and saw the seriousness on his face he changed his tone, "’Course I have, hurts like hell." He said.

     "Well I did...once, "Gomer looked back down at the ground.

     "Did it hurt?"

       "Naw, heck all it did was bust the wrench." Gomer looked back up and smiled, "that’s what I mean sir, I mean what’s it like to feel pain?"

     Junior sighed, "Look it’s not exactly the funnest thing in the world, but listen when we get time, I promise we’ll talk all about, now we need to get down to the those woods...ok?"

     Gomer said nothing, but smiled slightly and nodded his head.

     "C’mon big dude, let’s go, but listen, we need to be real careful ok? Until we find out who or what’s down there, let’s just take it real easy...ok?" Junior turned and headed down the yellow pit road towards the direction of the flame, it seemed brighter as it now began to reflect off the surrounding trees.

     Seconds after he began to walk, the loud creaking began behind him again. Junior put up his hand and stopped, then slowly turned. Gomer was grinning, dutifully pulling the toolbox behind him.

       "Wait, hold on," Junior said," Listen, just leave the toolbox here ok? We’ll go down there first and then come back and get the toolbox later...after we make sure everything’s ok, alright?"

     Gomer hesitated a moment, then looked at the toolbox, then back to Junior, then back to the toolbox. After a moment he gently put the handle down, looked back at Junior and slowly nodded his head.

     Junior felt as though he’d just taken a child’s teddy bear away," It’ll be ok here, no one will bother it and we’ll be back for it soon...Now c’mon, it’s almost dark," Junior turned and began walking again.

     And almost at once the loud creaking started again. Junior cringed, then stopped dead in his tracks. When he turned around, the metal man stood about five feet in front of his box. Gomer took one more step and made a loud creak. He looked at Junior dumbfounded.

     "Look," Junior said with a sigh, "Why don’t you just wait here...okay?"

     Gomer looked at him, then cast his eyes downward and slowly nodded his head. Junior felt as though he’d just told a two year old child that is was time to leave the playground.

     "If I’m not back in say, "Junior looked up at the quickly darkening sky," twenty minutes or so, then come in after me, okay?"

     Gomer said nothing, he simply looked at Junior with his lower jaw protruding outward and a sad look on his face. He slowly nodded again.

     Junior sighed, then turned and headed towards the direction of the firelight.

     The smell of wood smoke hung heavy in the air. It invoked memories of childhood camping trips with his father. The cool crisp mornings spent in the North Carolina mountains warming them selves by the fire, re-stoked from the previous night, were some of the most pleasant memories of his youth...other than those at a race track.

     Junior crept as close as he dared, perhaps twenty feet. From the edge of the woods were he now stood, he could see what appeared to be a well used campsite. A bed roll lay stretched out on the ground on the far side of the fire, a small back pack on the near side, but no people. Junior slowly, cautiously entered the wood line, he continued to look around, but still saw no one. The campfire glowed, warm and inviting, while shadows danced in the surrounding woods, appearing menacing. Junior crept closer to the safety of the light. A branch cracked, Junior realized it wasn’t from his foot step, one second too late.

     He felt a large, sharp, metallic object pressed into the center of his back.

     "You even so much as breath wrong boy and I swear I’ll run you through." The voice sounded deep and threatening.

     Junior saw the shadows from the firelight dancing on the trees, it seemed as though they were now laughing at him.

     It was at that very moment he wished he was back in the North Carolina mountains with his dad.

      An excerpt from part 5:

      The sword felt heavy in his hand as he withdrew it from the sheath at his waist. Junior hefted the sword and swung it at the great beast in front of him. It hit the beast's skin and bounced off as though the heavy metal sword were a child's rubber toy. He looked up at the beast and continued to point the sword directly at it's throat.

     The beast looked like a dragon he remembered from his childhood fairy tales. Only now, this one wasn't a product of a child's imagination, it was real and breathing fire right at him. Junior leapt to the side and rolled to avoid the flame. He stood back up and readied the sword again.

     "Little man," the beast hissed, "You were warned not to come here." The beast's voice resonated and sounded like a combination of a thousand evil voices speaking in unison.

     The beast roared and reared back it's head. At the same moment it swung it's huge tail around and caught Junior off guard. He was thrown to the ground in an instant.

     He lay face down on the ground. He tried to regain the air that had been pushed from his lungs when he'd been knocked down. The sword lay inches from his outstretched arm, just out of reach. He tried to inch forward to grab it in his hand. The beast placed a foot on to the center of his back, he felt the claws digging into his flesh, felt the pressure push him back down. Junior grunted as the air was pushed from his lungs again. He could feel the hot breath of the beast inches away from the back of his head. He smelled an awful stench. The breath of the beast reminded him of the smell of burning oil from a blown engine.

     "You were warned little man, " the voices hissed, " And now you will pay, like your friend did."

     Junior could see the pile of melted tin out of the corner of his eye. Then he could feel the heat from the flames as they began to spew forth from the beast.

     The beast roared... Junior screamed.