I don't know if it was lack of sleep or irritation that did it. Maybe both. Maybe I just needed the adrenaline shot to finish my portions. It didn't matter. With a kick of my heel, I scooted out from under the manifold.

"How'd I get into this sorta thing? How'd I get into this, lemme think about that."

I didn't exactly spend much time on it. I'd had some form of this clapback in my back pocket since I was a child.

"I learned how to do this when I learned how to boost speeders. You couldn't get very far with what you stole if you didn't understand how it worked. It's either that or starve, or do a lot worse things than steal speeders to be able to eat."

I didn't feel like I was paving any new roads with my old man. I could see the mileage on the old pirate's face. Why the fuck was he asking me this? Maybe that's what made me angry.

"What, you think I learned this in a school?"