Wednesday's Words on a Friday

 

The original Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and eventually taken over by a moveable feast of participants when Delores had computer troubles. Sadly, Delores has now closed her blog forever due to other problems.

The aim of the words is to encourage us to write. A story, a poem, whatever comes to mind.

If you are posting an entry on your own blog, please let us know so we can come along to read it and add a few encouraging words.

This month the words/prompts are supplied by Margaret Adamson and Sue Fulcher and can be found here

This week's words/prompts are: 

1. beechmast 

2. investigating 

3. muffler 

4. sensible 

5. penetrate 

6. fox 

and/or: 

1. ferrule 

2. miserable 

3. odd 

4. soaking 

5. bedstead 

6. contrary

Here is my story:

I took a few minutes to work on my crossword puzzle while my husband was under the car investigating the exhaust pipe. "The coke can has burned through," he said, tossing scraps of metal out from under then sliding himself out with two U-clamps in his hand. He used a pair of wire cutters to slice open another empty can, then crawled back under to fix it to the pipe, patching the hole, so we could continue our trip. "The hole is bigger now, next time we might need two cans and an extra clamp."

"The sensible thing to do would be getting the exhaust pipe replaced," I said. "You paying for that?" snapped the miserable bugger. "You know we can't afford that." He opened another can of coke and drank half before starting the car. "Take off your shoes again and let me know when the floorboards start feeling warm," he said as he slowly got the car back onto the road. 

We lived in Queensland at the time and were headed to South Australia to visit his parents. Unfortunately, we always took the cross country roads, where towns and help were few and far between. Taking the highway around the coast would take longer, he always said, getting there as fast as possible was always the aim. Get there, visit and get home, that was my contrary husband. Allowing for travel time we would have two days at his parents home before leaving again. 

I hadn't been able to crack the crossword, (the answer turned out to be "beechmast", something I had never heard of) and I couldn't write while the car was moving, every bump, every rut in the road sent my pen scrawling across the page, so I put it away and stared instead at the flat brown landscape, wishing  for different scenery. Just once, I wished we could take the coastal highway. I moved my feet, checking for warmth penetrating the floor, wondering if anyone else's husband did such odd things, coke cans and U clamps were a bandaid solution at best. 

As the floor got warmer, he asked me to let him know when it was actually hot, the further down the road the better in his opinion. When my feet became uncomfortable, we stopped. He knew roughly where we were, having made this same trip several times already, so he checked the map and decided on a longer stop at the next town. We could get something to eat and buy extra cans of coke. We limped along until the town was in sight and sighed with relief to see the service station was open. Ignoring the sandwiches in our Esky, we bought hotdogs instead and half a dozen cans of soft drink. Sitting at the table I confessed that I had been setting aside a few dollars a month towards buying a new bedstead, ours was cheap, old and ugly, and I wanted something nicer. 

"How much?" he asked and I said I wasn't exactly sure (big lie) and would have to check at the bank when we arrived at our destination. "Wait here," he said and walked around to the mechanic's office, coming back after a few minutes looking glum. "We can't get just a new exhaust pipe, it's a whole connected pipe and muffler which will cost about $xxx. If you can help with paying, we'll get it done the day after we get there." He used the servo's phone to call his parents and ask his dad to book us into the local repair shop. 

"You ready to get going again?" he said as he picked up the new cans. We wandered outside to find a fine, soaking drizzle had begun, cooling us down and washing the dust off the car as well. "We should be there by just after dinner time if we don't have to stop again," as he cracked open another can of coke and guzzled it down. A few hours later as the sun began to set, we had crossed the border and made it halfway across our home state. The floorboards were a little warm, so we stopped in the shade of a giant peppercorn tree so he could fix another empty can around the exhaust pipe, while I stared at a fox tail on the road, the only part left after scavengers had eaten the rest.  "That hole is getting too close to the muffler," he said, "if you can do without a fancy new bed, we won't have to borrow money from Mum and Dad," he said.

So we got the new muffler and exhaust pipe fitted the next day, spent the following day barbecuing in the backyard while most of his siblings dropped in to visit and eat sausages, bacon, chops and vats of potato salad, followed by two entire watermelons. 

The ride home was made in record time, I knew he was stewing a bit about me having hidden money that he could have used for beer and smokes, but he also knew that my savings had meant we were never behind on the utility bills, so he let it go and thanked me for helping out.