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Sunday, December 16, 2012

Truck on a country road

Andy Magee photo
It's been a while since I've posted anything for "The Mag" (formerly Magpie Tales) but the prompt photo, by Andy Magee, suddenly said something to me today. It spoke in prose, not poetry, so here goes...for The Mag.
Also posted for Open Link Monday at the Imaginary Garden with Real Toads.


HER TRUCK
Kathryn had always wanted a truck. A yellow one, she thought, for visibility in bad weather.
The weather was certainly bad enough the day she finally bought her truck. It was red, supposedly a safe color because fire engines were red, but mostly because a yellow truck wasn’t in stock.
She drove it home through the fog, the drizzle, and the high, high winds. Neither the berm, nor the hedges, nor the winter-bare trees provided protection for the open back of the truck where she carried building supplies, but at least she’d had everything well wrapped.
Kathryn smiled as she saw the shabby old fence. It would be one of her restoration projects soon, but the house came first.
Her husband never understood why she wanted to fix up the house and property.
“No one ever comes here anyway,” he always said. “It all looks okay to me.”
And, “I don’t see why we need a truck. My car does fine.”
“Fine,” she thought, shaking her head as she drove the truck down the little hill, where she could see tracks in the grass beside their road, tracks made by the car doing “fine” on an icy day recently.
“I’ll show him fine,” she laughed. “It’s a good thing I got a winch on the front of the truck, too, because you never know when you might need to pull something out...a tree out of the ground, a car out of a ditch...”
And she laughed again as she passed her husband’s car, in the ditch beside the road, where it had been for almost a week. He’d had to walk home in the ice and snow, and he’d had to eat humble pie once he reached the house.
“Maybe we really should get a truck,” he mumbled as he stood by the fireplace, trying to get warm.
“Oh, there’s no rush,” Kathryn had replied.
It was almost a week before someone came to the house: a delivery van with a box of brochures her husband had ordered. He was out walking the dog when Kathryn hitched a ride to town in the delivery van.
“I’ll pull his car out tomorrow,” she said to herself. “That will make him happy. But I wonder why he left the window open on the driver’s side. That seat is going to be awfully wet by now.”
Kay L. Davies, December, 2012

20 comments:

Jinksy said...

Bit of a sting in the tail with this tale! LOL

Berowne said...

Quite an imaginative "slice of life." Well done...

Unknown said...

While the whole tale amused and entertained, that last line made me laugh out loud in the quiet of my still-dark, morning studio.

Laurie Kolp said...

Good for her on getting the truck.

kaykuala said...

Beautiful narration Kay! A welcomed respite to the usual verses! Yes, why would she want a truck for!

Hank

Anonymous said...

Great story! Love the red truck!

Herotomost said...

lol....you do need a truck! This was a great pice of americana right here. I love the pace and the way you got the whole thing across in such a shoprt span. Great writing...loved it.

Maude Lynn said...

Every girl needs a truck!

Susan said...

Slices of life, with open windows, I hope no nasty surprises like wild cats are waiting there.

Sherry Blue Sky said...

I love the narrator's brisk humorous tone........and am left wondering why he left the window open????

Daryl said...

now i need to know ..why was the window open?

Ella said...

I love it and guess what I drive ;D
a truck!

LLM Calling said...

an open window ...... but why?

Leslie said...

You do spin a good yarn (and I wouldn't mind either a red or a yellow truck, myself!)

kelvin s.m. said...

..weird, but the moment i read your prose(the starting lines) i was, for a moment, brought back to one scene of 'Twilight Saga'. 'twas when Bella was settled to live with his father,Charlie, in Forks (a place which,based on the description of the author, resembles almost the same climate seen on the prompt this week). Charlie bought her a red truck too..a Chevy if i'm not mistaken... haha... ok, i'm not a Twilight fan right? lol... really nice read and i truly enjoyed it... thanks for sharing... smiles...

Susie Clevenger said...

Love your story telling and that wet seat. ;)

Anonymous said...

Kay, first time here. Lovely story. Like an O. Henry tale. And the open window, I am laughing out loud. I live in Wisconsin and even though the winter is long here, we have a Nissan Versa. All our friends have trucks, but I figure, we have AAA, and that's good for a tow! Thanks for the smiles, Amy
http://sharplittlepencil.com/2012/12/18/marian-merlin-and-me/

hyperCRYPTICal said...

Lovely story - a pleasure to read.

Anna :o]

Chris Lawrence said...

an imaginative slice with feeling

Other Mary said...

I like that she took her time and didn't rush right out to get a truck after her husband put his car in the ditch, lol.