ESSAY | MONTHLY THEME | PROMPTLY WRITTEN
Old Reliable Got Us Home
Gratitude Journal — Day 2
In 2004, my spouse and I bought a second-hand 1996 turquois Hyundai Accent. When we moved from Virginia to Oklahoma a year later, we hitched her to the moving truck and dragged her with us. She has been the best car I’ve owned since my 1976 Dodge Dart Swinger from my college days. Lucy, as my spouse affectionately calls her, has only had minor issues, mostly dealing with brakes, axels, and tires. So long as we keep her maintained, she purrs like a kitten. However, today she growled like a tiger protecting a prized meal and smoked like a doused dragon — the back right brake had locked up.
We’d gone to another of my copious doctor appointments and since we’d missed our anniversary on Sunday, we’d decided to have a bite to eat at a favorite restaurant. We were about three blocks away when the growling, grinding sound began. By the time we found a place to pull over, smoke was pouring out of that tire rim and we feared it would catch fire. Maddy got several cups full of water and doused the brake, but it took a while for it to cool down. We settled on a close-by cafe for a meal instead of our favorite haunt.
The drive home, a mere ten city blocks away, was harrowing. Every couple of blocks, we had to pull over and Maddy had to jack Lucy up and pour water directly on the brake pad. A normal fifteen to twenty-minute drive took us over an hour. However, we’d been through issues like this with Lucy before. She is ever the old faithful and she got us home.
So I am grateful that we have an old reliable car that we can push to her limits sometimes and she still pulls through for us. And tomorrow, she will get a free ride to a mechanic and get her brakes check and new ones. She may no longer look as pretty as she once did, but she’s still a great car and worth the expense.
©2021 Lori Carlson. All Rights Reserved.
This is in response to the November Monthly Theme prompt — Keep a 30-day Gratitude journal. I am aiming to commit to this. Wish me luck!
Lori Carlson writes Poetry, Fiction, Articles, Creative Non-Fiction, and Personal Essays. Most of her topics are centered around Relationships, Spirituality, Life Lessons, Mental Health, Nature, Loss, Death, and the LGBTQ+ community. She is the Owner/Editor of Promptly Written and Not For Bedtime Stories. Check out her personal Medium blog here.
