A Tale of Two Sisters
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.My car wouldn't start this morning. I didn't want to wake my late-sleeping sister too early so I called my mom to chat. Lo and behold my father was still at home and I discussed my car-starting-issues with him. He said that it sounded like I just needed a jump, battery check, and possibly a new battery. He told me to call my sleeping sister asap to get this taken care of. Before hanging up he gave the dreaded direction, "call me when you get it started." We should have both just stayed in bed.
I called Tina and woke her from her pleasant slumber. I told her there was no need to hurry since my car was currently surrounded by other parked vehicles and she wouldn't be able to pull close enough to jump it. While saying this one such car pulled out of the parking lot. "Come now! Come now, before someone else takes the spot." Tina is an amazing sister, she crawled out of bed immediately and came to rescue me. We should have both just stayed in bed.
Less than a month ago we were faced with this exact scenario. We took my car to Wal*Mart and they said that it was fine. So while claiming that we were ripped off by the Supercenter we prepared to jump my car taking careful precautions to match "positive to positive, negative to negative." Dad had said that it might need to charge up for a few minutes before we disconnected...so we left the cars (AS WE HAD BEEN INSTRUCTED TO DO) and went inside to the warm apartment. About fifteen minutes later we emerged ready to find cars that were recharged and ready to head to Autozone for the battery check. But such was not the case. We should have both just stayed in bed.
Neither car was running. The jumper cables had melted. Goopy cable coverings were dripped all over our batteries. The smell of burning rubber and sparks hung in the air. We were both horrified to a state of speechlessness! Both cars were deader than door nails. We disconnected the now ruined cables and tossed them into a snow pile. We attempted to put Tina's Bronco into neutral and push it to a less crowded area of the lot (in hopes of finding someone else to jump her car). But the power steering was locked up and we couldn't turn the wheel from its awkward angle (note: wheel would have turned if we had turned the key in the ignition while it was in neutral...but she had her keys in her pocket because we didn't think of that). We should have both just stayed in bed.
We tried to think of all the people who could be called in such a circumstance. People who could help us: quickly, before we had to call our father back. Turns out my sister and I are awfully good at alienating helpful people...and while our best friends are good at offering sympathy, sympathy doesn't undo a mistake like this one. We walked to Tina's apartment to get her cell phone in order to take full advantage of every possibly helpful contact available. It was of no use, we had to face the inevitable and we both knew it. We had to call Dad back. We should have both just stayed in bed.
He answered the phone on the first ring. "Yell-o"
"It's Trisha."
"Hey, Trisha!"
"We made a mistake, we melted the cables, we did it just like before but something went wrong..."
There the tirade began. How could we be so helpless? We were just like our mother. Why weren't we more careful? We'd probably ruined them both now! He knew he should have come and taken care of this when we first called. Now it's probably too late. He would be here in an hour. We should have both just stayed in bed.
My brother called to tell us when Dad left. He gave us the necessary information and then said, "I love you," as if he were never going to hear from us again. Mom reminded us that we had one of two possible outcomes before us, either he would have cooled down over the hour-long drive or he would have worked himself up into a tizzy just sitting there stewing about it for an hour. We hoped for the latter. We should have both just stayed in bed.
Dad arrived and jumped both cars. They are both fine. We checked the batteries at Autozone. Cleaned off corrosion. We bought new jumper cables and power steering fluid. We had lunch at the Junction and talked about cars, motorcycles, boys, Costa Rica, and vacations.
He never yelled.
He didn't complain about the cold.
He didn't call us stupid or dumb.
He bought us lunch and laughed about our misadventures.
He wasted a Saturday on us.
And for a day that I was sure was going to give me reason to curse the day that I was born...it wasn't bad: my problems are fixed, my dad isn't angry, and my sister's car is fine. I am so thankful for my dad. He is incredibly self-sacrificing. We are a pain in the neck and he always takes care of us. While maybe my sister and I should have both just stayed in bed today, we are blessed to have a dad that can undo what sympathetic friends, alienated others, or unreachable helpers cannot.
In the worst of times we were reminded that we have the best of families.
posted by Trisha @ 4:14 PM
