Smart Car
by Doug Hawley
37: Adversity
Previous Chapter
Return To First Chapter
Sheila woke up Duke with a
kiss and said, “Rise and or Shine Starlight,
it’s our Annual Adversity.”
A sleepy Duke responded
“I think you mean anniversary, but of what?”
“Getting married, you
goof.”
“We’re married?
Where was I when this happened, and why don’t
I know about it?”
“I understand why you
are confused. I didn’t know either,
until Deuce reminded me.”
“How did your car know,
and we didn’t.”
“As Deuce explained it
to me, we were having a great time consuming some
medicinal organics on this day years ago, and
decided on a whim to get married. Deuce
drove us to a justice of the peace and we did the
deed. We didn’t remember what we had
done, but Deuce was clear-headed about the whole
thing. Don’t know why he just told me
today, and so far he hasn’t told us the year.”
“So all this time we
never had children was because we thought that we
weren’t committed and might drift apart?”
“That and we were too
involved in our own interests. Any regrets?”
“This is a lot to
process, but I can’t say I’d be the
best dad. One runt mathematician in the
world is enough. How long ago did we get
married?”
“He didn’t give
the date, but it must have been quite a while ago.
It was the Friday after an old Thanksgiving day
before the holidays were rearranged.”
Duke asked “What do
married couples do on anniversaries?”
“I think they might
get each other cards or gifts, maybe renew vows,
and take something out in their local newspaper.
That’s some of the things I got off my
mindphone.”
“So we’ve got the
rest of the day to think about what we’re
doing. Tell you what Sheila, we’ll
handle it. We can each do our thing, ready,
set, go. Meet you back here in say eight
hours.”
Duke rushed off in Carl and
shortly thereafter, Sheila took off in her car
Josie. Deuce was left behind to wonder what
was going on.
Sheila came back much
faster than Duke, but Duke barely made in back in
the eight hours. Duke told Sheila “You
go first.”
Sheila gave Duke a box of
scented soaps and a big card picturing the two of
them smiling. On the inside the card said
“Now you can keep cleaning up so well”
with a hand drawn picture of a soapy Duke which
somewhat improved on reality.
Duke presented Sheila with
a new recorder to replace her old one and a card
that said “Now we can continue to make
beautiful music as long as I just listen.”
The happy couple only had a
few warm minutes to treasure their presents and
relationship before a loud “Wedding March”
intruded on their warmth.
Outside of their house the
three cars were playing the music. Carl had
a big top hat on his roof and Josie had a
similarly placed wedding bouquet. Deuce had
one of each. Carl spoke for the cars “Deuce
told us about your anniversary, so we wanted to
be a part of the celebration. Deuce didn’t
know which way to go, so he went both ways.”
The happy couple thanked
the cars. Duke wondered “How could
this get any better?” In answer Josie
started to play some dance music. Duke and
Sheila responded with weird variations on some
dirty bop moves, and the cars performed some
tight ballet and square dance moves.
Much later the exhausted
and elated couple bid each other goodnight with
the usual “Sweet dreams moonbeams and sleep
tight starlight.”
Return To The Story List And
Biography For Doug Hawley
Read A Random Story
From The Writers' Showcase
|
