Latchford · Meet the driver

Blue Bruiser

At the wheel: Hettie Cross

Chevy 1963 Chevy II

The mark she doesn't polish

Keep your favorites in this browser.

Hettie Cross can tell the difference between a dent that needs fixing and one someone just hates looking at. It took her a long time to say that about her own Chevy.

The fall before the first run

The first thing Hettie noticed when the Chevy hit the workshop floor was that nobody had made much noise in response. Her brother Gavin had slid the unfinished bench aside to get at a plug. She had put the car at the far end without telling him. One wheel rested against the turned edge of a floor mat and the mark came just above it. She has never managed to tell the story without pointing at both places: where the car ended up and where she thought it was safe.

Gavin asked whether the 1963 Chevy II ought to go straight back up to the bench. She said no and reached to pick it up when he turned his back. They had been coming in after work to straighten out little problems for weeks. She couldn't bear the idea that now he would list what they needed like he hadn't already done it once. She got the box home and left it by a chair that nobody was using.

A noise in the other room

Hettie installs racks and machines for bakeries. On a new floor she sometimes has to sit and watch a full tray make one trip through before she knows which edge wants attention. If a rattle only shows up with weight on it, she asks the operator what they had on that tray. The better operators already know. She likes the ones who tell her they were trying something.

Back at her own shop she set the Chevy on a straight strip and pushed it off by hand so slowly that Gavin couldn't hear what she was talking about. Inez from Cocoa Bandit had a brass zipper pull with a loop that moved at the same rate every time she flicked it. Then she tied it to a soft bit of ribbon and showed what it sounded like when the ribbon tapped the bench at the loose end. Hettie stopped chasing the steadier sound and found the rattle she could actually fix.

“Put the rag here. We can hear the loose thing without setting it on the floor again.”

Hettie Cross · Checking a rattle with Gavin.

First pass with a little room

The first time she drove afterward she made the steering input well before the place she really needed it. The car did what she asked and sent her to the outside without any bad noise at all. Hettie had gone out to be reassured about the wheels. Just beyond the bend she discovered she had started thinking about getting a second run right.

She and Nisha from White Lightning practice on the same side of the garage. Nisha asked Hettie to stand by the first seam when she had written too much to make a start. Later she offered to mark where the Chevy began to turn. Hettie hadn't realized that she'd been trying to get the stressful part over before the course even asked for it. The first report from Nisha was four words long. Hettie remembered all four when she got home.

Still on the threshold

She wants the sharper side of a full course to feel as ordinary as the first straight line after repairs. Gavin has asked to do the next walk before practice, in case there is something they can move well clear of the run. She means to let him get there before her, which could take some doing. Usually she is still waiting to tell someone not to touch the bench.

The scuff from the fall is still above one wheel. Hettie puts an oil rag across the bench under the shop lamp and rolls the wheel next to the dark patch so she can see it turn clear. Gavin hands over the rag without touching the car. He leaves one corner clean for her.

“That was a clean corner. It wasn't the corner I meant to make.”

Hettie Cross · After a private run with Nisha watching.

Mic at the pits

Hear the zipper

Mack That's for your jacket?

Hettie Cross Inez used it to show me a loose rattle. I found the loose part and kept the dent. It doesn't make noise.

Mack Not even a little?

Meet the voice behind the microphone