Loud and Not Fast

            Last evening I made a run to get gasoline to mow my yard and yes, I did get it finished. My knees feel as though I had just run a marathon wearing lead shoes. As I made my drive home, I saw ahead of me another car. When I saw it, the vehicle was about 12 car lengths ahead of me. I got to about 10 car lengths and thought there was something wrong with my engine. I could hear a low rumble, so I turned off my radio and listened again.

            My car seemed to be pulling okay, but the noise grew louder. By now I was within 5 car lengths. I popped the transmission into neutral to see if that made any difference, it was only louder. The vehicle in front was about 3 car lengths and not moving very fast. It was then I realized that the dark colored sedan was the culprit and not my car at all. It was loud enough that the people inside had to have hearing damage.

            There were two cars that worried me more. One was at my brother-in-law David’s house. We were in his car waiting to pull out onto 711 and a car whisked by, sparks shooting up behind it like a rooster tail. David asked if we should follow him. It was then a cloud of gasoline vapors hit us. I told him “No way, he has to know something’s dragging and with it being his gas tank and the sparks, I don’t want anywhere near him.”

            The other was a car at the hospital I was discharging a patient in a wheelchair. Its windshield crisscrossed with a spider web of cracks. As I got to the exit, a car pulled up. It was for her. When I opened the passenger door, it dropped about 1/2 inch. The seat for the passenger was an upturned apple crate with a burlap sack tossed on it. After helping her inside, I carefully lifter and shut the door. As the car was driving off, I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. One of the brake lights fell from the rear fender onto the bumper. It rested there, still glowing red.

            When I relayed the story to my fellow nurses, they asked if I made sure she was wearing her seat belt. I said, “I tied the binder twine as tightly s possible.”

            In the driver’s defense, he spoke with the guards, saying he knew that he shouldn’t have that car on the road, but his wife was so sick.