A promise of brownies

Was it an omen when the license plate fell off the car at the airport? Paul was leaving for 5 months half way round the world and my first order of business was to figure out how to be street legal. I drove straight to my favorite mechanics at Firestone. Mike was preparing to close for the day but said he’d help. He saw that the license plate was bolted into plastic inserts on the back hatch of the car. I am not sure why these plastic inserts fell out, but simply putting them back in was not going to do the trick. Mike suggested wall anchors which he did not have at the shop. The short version of this story is that I made 2 trips to ACE Hardware and 3 trips to Firestone that evening and promised brownies to Mike for staying late to help me. Saturday got away from me although I finally made the brownies – a Dorie Greenspan recipe w/bittersweet chocolate and walnuts. I was tempted to hold one back but decided to eat the crumbs and give Mike all. The directions said to let cool completely but I did not want to wait quite that long. So at 4:30 I took my warm brownies to the mechanic. Firestone was crowded. Herb had this smile at the corners of his mouth guessing what I had. When I finally got to the counter, I asked for Mike. "He's here somewhere." "Oh, no he's not; he left at 4:30" So I told Herb that this was for Mike - that he had stayed late to help me on Thursday when my license plate fell off. Herb was very gracious and offered to put my goodies in the fridge till the next day. The brownies were covered in foil, so the contents were not obvious. I wanted Mike to know I was grateful for his help. I did not mind if he shared but I knew they would disappear fast. Herb put the two more anchors in the bottom of the license plate so now it is rigid. Do I need to make more brownies for Herb? Do you think Mike ever got the brownies?