Story for Oops
Today's story, though, is one that is more about early marriage, Love and forgiveness. We try so hard to be strong and supportive, but often in the process our mistakes can affect another's dreams, and how much we need forgiveness and mercy to stay strong together.
The Emergency
I called the emergency room,
I called, and the head nurse picked up
I asked if I could speak
!! Speak to speak to my wife !!! . . . . It was not good, would not be good …
It was in our early marriage, and I wanted to contribute, to help out, to show her how much I loved her, she had started to work in the emergency room for these first newlywed months since we were married, I was still in college, It was my second year as a senior (my second), and she was supporting the household, when she got on the line, I said,
“could you find a ride home if it would be ok? we're still working on your car,
Sorry dear, Your car still needs some more work
"we're".. . ??? (the long pause after that single word which I assumed had some implications )
So I thought carefully before I answered and said,
“well yes....”, Rex is over for the night and helping me , uuumm, to work on the car,
Rex
See Rex , she knew Rex well, Rex was was my best friend at college, my semi roomie, he was in my dorm more than his, so much so that my roommate mate finally moved out. we did everything thing together, He was the fun kind-of guy that brought laughter and excitement into every room, he'd enter a room by kicking the door open and beating his chest and yelling "I’m as happy as a pig eating fresh slop!!" and we camp or wander most every weekend, He had all of these sayings like we were hiking and "the snow was so deep , it was up-to a giraffes arm pits" He was incredibly smart, but when board, we'd get into trouble, like the time, on a cold night, we tied a bunch of empty garbage cans to the back of the idling security jeep on campus and tricked him into chasing us, or when we put thousands of the little noisy peeper frogs in the men's showers, But he was a genius, but he was also an amazing mechanic, So after class when I told him I was going to work on Colleen's car, he offered to help, I said sure yes, Once we had change the oil, gapped and changed the plugs, he said, well that’s that, but it sounds like the carburetor is in need of tuning,
“Would you like to know how a carburetor works?”
boy would I ever ! ! ! Knowing how to help Colleen would be great,
One thing led to another, and time got away from us, and suddenly I realized it was time to pick up Colleen, thus led to the quick phone call to Colleen,
When Colleen got home and walked into the kitchen, saw a bed sheet draped across our kitchen table with all the carburetor parts,
all the little screws,
the little springs,
the things that went into little holes,
metal cups for gas, with plastic floats,
tubes and clamps,
she stared at us, dropped her bag and cried, "my car" "my favorite car"
Her Favorite Car
This was her favorite car,
the car she bought with the savings from her first job out of school,
the car that had gotten her freedom from home,
the car her favorite uncle had helped maintain,
it was a copper penny collared Mercury Bobcat, classic edition, a little hatchback, she was in love with this car,
we used to ride around with no direction in mind
She’d drive up to see me at college every two weeks
and she'd read chapters from books
as we took in the new England scenery, and watch sunsets
Well Rex and I had our work to do, we worked pretty much all night to get the car back assembled again and tuned up, and Colleen went off to work in a friends car to work and we needed to give the car a test drive, and get him back to college I finally knew ALL about carburetors and their gas-air ratio, the clamps and floats and springs and screws, and went out to do some errands , it all just made so much sense ,
On the way home , on a long straight stretch of the road my newly attuned ear could tell there was hesitation when accelerating,
I knew that it was the xyz screw that needed to be turned down just a little bit, so I pulled over onto the dirt shoulder, pulled out my tools, popped the hood, and bingo bango tweaked it just a little and off I was again,
better than ever,
after picking up the groceries, I could feel a lag of to rich a fuel air mixture, so pulled over, got the tools, popped the hood, pulled the hoses unscrewed the carburetor, adjusted the float, put it back together and jumped back in , and headed off again,
These little adjustments were getting easier and easier to do,
I kept pulling over and tweeking this or that, and with a smile on my face kept driving,
The Ruff Road
Took the long way back, rounded the corner in the road there were road construction signs the pavement changed into some ruffed rutted dirt single lane road, It was an under construction section, the flag man waved a few cars, me and a white van were the last ones through,
The first Bump, and the hesitation
I hit a bump hard, and stepped on the pedal a bit too hard, and the car seemed to hesitate a little ,
That wasn't good,
and looking at the road work barriers and the tall brick wall on the other side
I did not want to break down here,
The flashing Lights
The white van’s light’s were flashing , maybe he was having electrical problems on the ruff road
I could see I was half way through the one way dirt section
so I stepped on the gas to speed up, but nothing happened,
Beeping
Now the white van was flashing his lights and beeping his horn, gezzz guy, give me a brake there was no passing, no pulling over, no turnoffs
I'm trying, with only a quarter of the one way left I started to pump the gas like crazy to get away from him,
Waving
Now the white van was flashing beeping and leaning out his Windows and yelling shaking his fist at me,
I was scared, had I done something ,
Pulling over
Finally getting out of the one way dirt bumpy road I pulled to the side and hit my brakes,
but the brakes didn't work!!!
I crashed and rubbed the car into the shrubberies and pulled on the emergency brake, suddenly there was smoke coming from every were up front, running up front I popped the hood and as I was lifting it I saw the guy from the van run towards me and yelling, the hood of the car kind-of popped up and over, flames shot 20 feet into the air and I was blown back on my BUTT,
he sprayed the heck out of it, some of the workers threw some shovels of dirt in for good measure, ....
The car was toast
Turns out I had forgotten to put one little clamp back on the gas intake hose, so a bump popped off the hose, and with every stomp on the peddle, raw gas was spraying on the hot engine,
At first the guy behind saw smoke, then some bright flashes, then long hot red orange tongues of flame as I fed the fire with incessant pumping and the hoses and wires fuel lines all melted away,
x x x x x
That night, again I had to call the emergency room, and ask for my wife, I said,
Dear, could you find a ride home, your car still needs a little more work,
Somehow she knew, and asked,
“But your Ok”?
Yes, I love you,