The Wheels Fell Off the Day..... and oh, yeah, the Battery Died

by

Patti Dickinson

Wednesday night. Countdown to Meghan making her first solo drive from the driveway to school. All of two miles. Backpack. Check. Volleyball bag, complete with knee pads, shorts, t-shirt, Gatorade (strawberry) and shoes. Check. Lunch, turkey sandwich, three oreos, pretzels and a banana. Check. And ---- (drum roll here.....) the car keys. The car is in the driveway, aimed the right way to prevent any backing up into the house before the sun is up (not a way to start the day from a position of strength!) and all is at the ready.

After dinner on Solo-Driving-Eve she and her dad go out to check the car for gas (the last kid to drive the car was one of my college kids who is not known for keeping the tank topped off) and Wood shows her, just as a review, how to turn the headlights on.

The morning dawns. A quick bowl of Cheerios for Meghan, I hug her goodbye, following her out into the driveway so I can get the newspaper. I scoop it up, and head back down the driveway, fully prepared to jump sideways into the grass if she gets a little heavy-footed with the gas pedal, getting started. I joke with my kids all the time about getting "run over by a bus" when we talk about the time that I do not plan to spend in the nursing home....) And I listen. There is no purr of an engine (although this clunker hasn't purred in years..) There is no engine sound at all. She is sitting in the driver's seat, totally baffled. "The car won't start." I say, "Hmmm, maybe the battery is dead." And simultaneously, we say, "Ohhh no. We turned the lights on, but we didn't remember to turn the lights off."

A complete fizzle. Wood took her to school.

But this morning...she drove out of the driveway, grinning from ear to ear, hands at ten and two o'clock.