Monster Trucks

Throwback Thursday from Journal


Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Today was a beautiful day, sunshine, temperature predicted of 84 with a dew point of 0.  It started out with my cleaning lady friend bringing me and Mego a great breakfast, then I took a long walk with Mego and Jonathan followed by a short trip to the mall.

Plans were underway for a trip to my favorite pizza place for lunch, Brixx, all the way across town.  Two of my grandchildren, Jonathan and Taylor, both age sixteen, sat in the front with Taylor driving.  Mego and I sat behind, Mego already showing signs of sleep before we ever got onto the noisy, busy road of Capital Blvd at noon with lunch hour traffic.  I have heard that Capital Blvd is the second busiest street in North Carolina, bowing to Independence Blvd in Charlotte.  The children had the windows down with cool air pouring in all four, radio blasting, and Mego loving it while my hair did a wild and crazy dance all its own.  Trucks whizzed by and I felt the beginning of a nerve jumping out of place, soon to be joined by other nerves until they began having a wild dance inside my head just like my hair was doing on the outside. 

My mind wanted to once more be back into the little safe play room in my house, with Taylor and Jonathan playing quietly, very good babies in spite of all the marks they put on my walls.  Brittany was with us then but today she was at Wake Tech, probably wishing she was in the car headed for Brixx still with us.  In those pre-school days I and my guide dogs Holly and Mego, took all three of them to McDonald’s, Target, local ice cream parlor, drug stores, and Dollar stores.  I taught them how to look and listen for traffic, when to cross, and when to walk two blocks farther away where there was a light making it easier to cross.  How many streets have we crossed together?  Yes, they were good and careful children.  The nerves began to settle down.   Then we turned off Capital onto the Raleigh belt line.  

This was about the time the monster truck pulled up.  I have no idea what it looked like but it sounded like a jet.  My foot automatically pressed the imaginary brake in the back seat.  My favorite song came on the radio, “I can only imagine,” by Mercy Me.  I began to sing along with the song hoping to stay calm, just as the monster thing pulled right outside my window and blew its mighty horn, which scared me silly.  It felt like both Taylor and the truck sped up and all the other traffic pulled alongside the open windows on the other side of the car.  Somehow the children heard me over the trucks, the cars, the wind, the GPS and the radio. 

“I’m not happy!!! I can’t see, I can’t hear, and I think I’m fixing to be dancing with Jesus sooner than I thought,” I shouted. 

The windows went up, the truck pulled ahead, and all I heard then was the GPS, Mego snoring, and the teenagers laughing. 

It seemed to me that somebody had moved Brixx until we realized we were headed for Brixx in Chapel Hill and were almost there.  Taylor pulled off the highway at the next exit and pulled up at a Red Roof Inn to reprogram the GPS.  We were back on the trail to Raleigh.  

“Which way do I turn?”  Taylor asked Jonathan.

“Right,” he said.  Of course my directionally challenged genius meant the other right.
 

As Taylor took a sharp left the truck in back of us laid on his horn, blowing it as far down the highway as I could hear.

(Epilog 04/24/14): 

Taylor may read this blog and can verify this little story; however, I must add that when she is not working or in school at Wake Tech she is my frequent lunch partner, Cracker Barrel trip taker, and best shopping buddy, plus a very safe little driver.  Jonathan is in graphic design school at NC State, and it is my dream for him to illustrate a book of children’s poetry with me one day.  Brittany wears a beautiful engagement ring from the boy she plans to marry soon after her graduation when she will become a dental assistant.

Sometimes I think I still hear a monster truck passing me on life’s highway; its name is “Time.”