Been a couple months now.
11F’s spread all over the lift at this point.
Parts everywhere.
Shop smells like oil, solvent, old paper, and burnt coffee most days now.
ZM’s basically taken over one whole side of the workbench.
Maps.
Notes.
Photos.
Stacks of copied records.
Every few days she disappears for hours.
Phone calls mostly.
Asking people questions without sounding like she’s asking questions.
Can tell she’s finding things.
Just not telling me yet.
Every once in a while I catch her looking at me like she’s debating whether to say something.
Then doesn’t.
Think she knows I’m still not fully there with all this.
Honestly probably for the best.
One morning I came out to the shop and she was gone.
About ten minutes later she rolled back in on my Panhead carrying coffee.
Just kind of looked at her for a second.
Then thought:
“Yeah. That tracks.”
Couple nights now I’ve walked into the shop late and found her asleep at the workbench with papers spread everywhere under the lamp.
Still haven’t figured out if she’s staying because of the motorcycle or because she’s gotten pulled into this thing as badly as I have.
Maybe both.
Hard to tell anymore.