Well Water...Part Six

Chapter 3

Chris walked out the back door and down the steps of the deck in back of the house. As he reached the bottom, he turned around to latch the gate at the end of the stairs. He noticed Ranae sitting on the patio underneath the deck, smoking a cigarette. He smiled and waved and got into the family van. He began to back up out of the driveway that wrapped around towards the front of their home, all the while being careful not to hit his mother-in-law’s maroon 1980 Ford Astro van. As he maneuvered around it, he was grateful that he didn’t have to drive that piece of junk any more.

The “vehicle”, if you could call it that, showed every last day of its age. It was one of the very first mini vans ever produced: a boxy, un-aerodynamic, completely un-sexy vehicle. It reeked of utilitarianism. The van was covered in very unappealing maroon paint and had several rust spots on it. The largest and most noticeable were actually rust “holes” that ran along the very bottom edge of the sides. These holes gave the appearance that some giant movie monster with great menacing claws had tried to open the van up like a sardine can. The tires were all of different make and of different tread wear. They looked like they were about a day away from needing replacement. And the inside didn’t get much better. The air conditioner didn’t work, so the only relief from the heat on a hot day was to roll the windows down. The interior was filled with dust from cigarette smoke and the rear passenger seats and cargo section were crammed with various odds and ends: tools, buckets, tarps, clothing, rocks, etc. The van had not only been used as a work vehicle, but also a storage shed as well as a bedroom.

Chris shuddered at the memory of his last stint inside the vehicle. A few weeks prior, Shonda had signed the kids up for vacation bible school and had convinced Chris to just take her mom’s van to work. He reluctantly agreed, because ultimately his wife’s comfort was more important than his own. And she constantly made comments about how she hated driving the “hoopty” around on the few prior occasions when she used it to drop Savannah off at her tutoring sessions. Shonda was not a vain person in any sense of the word, however Chris completely understood what she meant. The thing was ugly, loud and hot and made all kinds of weird noises.

One day, when Chris had driven it to work he was pulling into the parking lot as incognito as he could in the old beater. As he surveyed the lot, he was hoping that he wouldn’t see anyone else walking in but was quickly disappointed to see a smattering of co-workers making their way towards the building. So he did the only thing he could do: he pulled in like he owned the place. Only as he was pulling into a spot, which was very near to where some female co-workers had stopped to chat, he had to make a sharper turn than normal. This caused the pump for the power steering fluid to start making a high pitched whining sound. So there he was, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible but failing horribly because the car was sounding like it was actually ready to explode. Luckily, no one in the lot at that time was paying attention, so he quickly walked in to the building.

And while no one noticed his grand entrance into the parking lot, what they did notice was that he hadn’t successfully placed his mother-in-law’s entire keychain into his pants pocket. Her key chain consisted of the standard “o” shaped ring that you worked your keys through as well as a small piece of black leather that had a pewter image of a horse’s head attached to it. That part of the key chain made its way entirely into his pocket. However, the dozen or so foot long leather tassels that also protruded from the little horse head did not make it into the confines of his pocket. Most people were polite enough to ignore it, or at least not comment on it. However there was that one individual who felt the need to say “Hey, is that a miniature cat-of-nine-tails in your pocket, or are you just happy to see us?” After that day, Chris removed the key that was necessary to start the vehicle from the key chain and put the rest of the key chain in the glove box.