Jon Dahl
10-05-2008, 03:56 PM
I had a heck of a time coming up with something for this challenge. Again, I don't know anything about carpooling, so I wrote this.... Just now.
:laugh:
Lost & Found
Keith was going to have a good day today. He had already decided that last night as he went to sleep that today was going to go perfectly as planned. Keith was in lower management of an internet service provider and he was going to make a break for upper management. He had spent an entire week working on his idea of offering security systems with broadband service. The technology was available and no other company in the area had jumped on the idea. He had talked his boss into setting up a meeting with the company heads to hear his presentation. Keith figured this to be his only chance to move up in the company and escape the hell of managing the entry level internet technicians.
“Mom,” he shouted up the stairs “where are my black socks!?”
“They’re in the dryer. I washed them for you last night.”
“Oh no.”
Keith opened the dryer and wasn’t surprised to find his black socks with yellow spots on them. His mother had been doing laundry for almost a half century and she still used bleach for everything. Keith sat down on his bed after putting on his socks and used a black magic marker to color in the yellowed spots.
After he had finished coloring his socks, he finished getting dressed, and then went upstairs to the kitchen to get something to eat for breakfast. He had hoped his mother had cooked him a nice breakfast. Her shortcomings on her inability to do laundry properly were easily balanced with her fantastic cooking.
“Toast and coffee?”
“I’m sorry sweetie, but this all I had time for, I am meeting Georgina this morning to go shopping for new coasters. Good luck with your big presentation today!”
Even though Keith was a little disappointed, he decided this was for the best, a quick breakfast would allow him to make up the time he lost fixing his socks. He held the toast in his mouth, held the coffee in one hand, grabbed his presentation with the other, and then headed for the door.
Keith went out to his 1996 Pontiac Grand Am that he had received as a high school graduation gift. The remote on his keychain had stopped working a few years ago so he had to unlock the doors the old fashion way, with a key. He put his coffee mug on the top of the car, fished his keys from his pocket, and then unlocked the car door. When opened the car door his coffee slid off the car and fell. Keith’s reflexes were sharpened from years of playing video games. He jumped back to avoid the steaming hot coffee, which to him appeared to be falling in slow motion. The cup hit the pavement and shattered splashing coffee onto his presentation and his surveillance camera. The ink on his poster board pie chart ran in little streams of blue and red colored coffee.
“Oh great,” Keith blurted out dropping his toast from his mouth.
He put his coffee stained charts in the trunk of the car, he wrapped the surveillance camera in an old beach towel he had in the trunk, and then kicked the broken pieces of the mug and soggy toast to the gutter. He got into the car and started the engine. The little engine purred perfectly bringing him some comfort, he put the car into gear, and off he went. He flipped on the radio to get the traffic reports.
”A Chevrolet Tahoe and a smaller truck collided blocking north bound lanes on Highway 395 at Constitution Road at 5:59 a.m. The Highway Patrol received reports of a person being trapped in one of the vehicles.”
“Super,” Keith said to himself. This meant he was going to have to pick up some Slugs and hit the HOV in order to make it to the meeting on time.
Slugging popped up about the same time as the High-occupancy vehicle-lane, or the HOV as it’s more commonly known. Slugging is the practice of waiting in a line for a driver who needs a few extra people to access the HOV. It’s an instant, free, carpool for those needing to get somewhere fast.
There are of course rules to slugging. Basically, act like you’re going on vacation with your grandparents and you’ll do okay. Because it’s a free ride, the driver is the boss. For example, slugs shouldn’t talk to the driver after stating their destination, unless the driver initiates the conversation. For safety, don’t leave women alone in slug lines alone. If a driver needs only two spots, but there are three people in line, and one happens to be a woman, she gets the ride despite her position in the line. Other rules involve manners and common sense. If someone forgets something in your car, you do wheat you can to make sure the item is returned the owner. On one occasion Keith found a prosthetic arm in his back seat, he never did find the one armed man.
It was still early when Keith pulled up to the slug line, so there were only four people waiting for a driver. Three men and one very pregnant woman.
“New York,” Keith shouted out the window.
The pregnant woman picked up her brief case and got into the front passenger seat as two of the three men got into the backseat. Keith left the news radio on and headed for the HOV.
“So,” Keith shot a glance at the woman’s huge belly, “how far along are you?”
“What are you talking about?” The pregnant woman looked dumfounded.
“Oh geeze, I didn’t mean,” Keith stuttered but was interrupted by laughing.
“Soon, I’m due very soon, “
A sense of relief came over him as his passengers had a laugh at his expense and that’s when he hit the pot-hole in the road. The Pontiac jolted hard as it bounced out of the pot-hole causing the car to bounce into the air. The four commuters hit their heads on the headliner, and then came crashing back down. Following that was the sound of air escaping a quickly deflating tire then flying to pieces as the car came to a halt on the side of the highway.
“Crap,” Keith shouted, “is everyone alright?”
The two men in the back nodded as they gathered their cellular phones and other scattered possessions. The pregnant woman rubbed her stomach and breathed heavily as if she were in pain.
Keith popped the trunk and got out of the car. The trunk was a mess with papers from his presentation, loose tools, and various bits of trash that had made there way from the front of the car to the trunk, but never to the dumpster. He pushed the junk off his presentation and lifted the spare tire, a jack, and the tire iron out of the trunk.
The spare tire was a joke. It was a dinky little doughnut that had a weird greasy film on it. Keith jacked up the car the attempted wrench the lug nuts off the shredded tire, but they had apparently been tightened by God, because he couldn’t get them to budge.
After a few minutes of grunting and straining, the two men in the back seat exited the car.
“Hey listen, thanks for the ride and all, but we’re going to walk down to the next line, it’s just a few blocks from here,” one of the men said.
“Oh, yeah okay, sorry about all this, it’s been kind of a crazy morning,” Keith said straining as he pulled the tire iron with all his strength.
It wasn’t until the two men were out of sight that Keith realized he had been turning the tire the wrong direction, and after a few more minutes, he had the shredded tire off. The meager little doughnut slipped onto the bolts and Keith replaced the lug nuts. Keith put the shredded tire in trunk and almost crushed his surveillance camera, but caught himself making the mistake. He grinned to himself knowing he just avoided a huge blunder as he picked up the camera still wrapped in the towel and carefully put the tire into the trunk.
Keith returned to the driver’s seat and put the camera in the front passenger’s seat where the woman had been sitting. At first he thought she just walked to the next slug-line with the two other passengers and then he became aware of the heavy panting in the back seat.
His heart sunk as he looked in the rearview mirror. Reflected back at him was the pregnant woman sprawled out in the back grimacing between breaths. The jolt from the pot hole had triggered her contractions.
“Oh no! No, no, no. Look lady, I’m sorry, but you’re just going to have to hold it until the next line, I think it’s just up a few blocks.” At that moment, as Keith finished his sentence, her water broke.
“Holy hell!” Keith jumped back out of the car and opened the back door.
“Okay,” Keith stammered, “what do I do?”
“Take the sheets off the bed and boil some water on the stove!”
“But this is a car.”
“Don’t you think I know that!? Use it to take me to the hospital!”
Keith jumped back into the driver’s seat and got back on the highway. He managed to drive another mile before her screams vibrated the mirrors.
“It’s coming now, pull over, and help me!”
Keith pulled over and once again ran to the rear of the car. He opened the door to be greeted by the dress lifted up on the woman. He wasn’t quite sure what he was seeing, at first it looked as if her nether regions had blown a meat bubble, but then he realized he was looking at the head of the baby.
“It’s, what, I don’t, ah, and what do I do!?” Keith couldn’t form a complete sentence which was okay, because she couldn’t hear anything he was saying anyway.
Keith took off his jacket and his dress shit leaving him standing with his white undershirt. He then got his pocket knife. He had seen this done on television plenty of times, and he saw his cat have kittens once. He could do this.
After a few minutes the baby boy had been delivered and other motorists by this time had gathered and called an ambulance. Keith helped the woman out of the car as she held her new baby wrapped in his shirt.
“What are you going to name him?” Keith asked
“Well, what’s your name?”
“Keith.”
“I’ve always like Michael.”
Keith was two hours late for his presentation when he pulled up to work. He went to grab his camera that was wrapped in the towel in the front seat after he parked the car, but it wasn’t there. He got out of the car in the and opened the back door, and there was a little bundle on the seat.
“Oh no, she didn’t,” Keith trembled as he picked up the bundle.
:laugh:
Lost & Found
Keith was going to have a good day today. He had already decided that last night as he went to sleep that today was going to go perfectly as planned. Keith was in lower management of an internet service provider and he was going to make a break for upper management. He had spent an entire week working on his idea of offering security systems with broadband service. The technology was available and no other company in the area had jumped on the idea. He had talked his boss into setting up a meeting with the company heads to hear his presentation. Keith figured this to be his only chance to move up in the company and escape the hell of managing the entry level internet technicians.
“Mom,” he shouted up the stairs “where are my black socks!?”
“They’re in the dryer. I washed them for you last night.”
“Oh no.”
Keith opened the dryer and wasn’t surprised to find his black socks with yellow spots on them. His mother had been doing laundry for almost a half century and she still used bleach for everything. Keith sat down on his bed after putting on his socks and used a black magic marker to color in the yellowed spots.
After he had finished coloring his socks, he finished getting dressed, and then went upstairs to the kitchen to get something to eat for breakfast. He had hoped his mother had cooked him a nice breakfast. Her shortcomings on her inability to do laundry properly were easily balanced with her fantastic cooking.
“Toast and coffee?”
“I’m sorry sweetie, but this all I had time for, I am meeting Georgina this morning to go shopping for new coasters. Good luck with your big presentation today!”
Even though Keith was a little disappointed, he decided this was for the best, a quick breakfast would allow him to make up the time he lost fixing his socks. He held the toast in his mouth, held the coffee in one hand, grabbed his presentation with the other, and then headed for the door.
Keith went out to his 1996 Pontiac Grand Am that he had received as a high school graduation gift. The remote on his keychain had stopped working a few years ago so he had to unlock the doors the old fashion way, with a key. He put his coffee mug on the top of the car, fished his keys from his pocket, and then unlocked the car door. When opened the car door his coffee slid off the car and fell. Keith’s reflexes were sharpened from years of playing video games. He jumped back to avoid the steaming hot coffee, which to him appeared to be falling in slow motion. The cup hit the pavement and shattered splashing coffee onto his presentation and his surveillance camera. The ink on his poster board pie chart ran in little streams of blue and red colored coffee.
“Oh great,” Keith blurted out dropping his toast from his mouth.
He put his coffee stained charts in the trunk of the car, he wrapped the surveillance camera in an old beach towel he had in the trunk, and then kicked the broken pieces of the mug and soggy toast to the gutter. He got into the car and started the engine. The little engine purred perfectly bringing him some comfort, he put the car into gear, and off he went. He flipped on the radio to get the traffic reports.
”A Chevrolet Tahoe and a smaller truck collided blocking north bound lanes on Highway 395 at Constitution Road at 5:59 a.m. The Highway Patrol received reports of a person being trapped in one of the vehicles.”
“Super,” Keith said to himself. This meant he was going to have to pick up some Slugs and hit the HOV in order to make it to the meeting on time.
Slugging popped up about the same time as the High-occupancy vehicle-lane, or the HOV as it’s more commonly known. Slugging is the practice of waiting in a line for a driver who needs a few extra people to access the HOV. It’s an instant, free, carpool for those needing to get somewhere fast.
There are of course rules to slugging. Basically, act like you’re going on vacation with your grandparents and you’ll do okay. Because it’s a free ride, the driver is the boss. For example, slugs shouldn’t talk to the driver after stating their destination, unless the driver initiates the conversation. For safety, don’t leave women alone in slug lines alone. If a driver needs only two spots, but there are three people in line, and one happens to be a woman, she gets the ride despite her position in the line. Other rules involve manners and common sense. If someone forgets something in your car, you do wheat you can to make sure the item is returned the owner. On one occasion Keith found a prosthetic arm in his back seat, he never did find the one armed man.
It was still early when Keith pulled up to the slug line, so there were only four people waiting for a driver. Three men and one very pregnant woman.
“New York,” Keith shouted out the window.
The pregnant woman picked up her brief case and got into the front passenger seat as two of the three men got into the backseat. Keith left the news radio on and headed for the HOV.
“So,” Keith shot a glance at the woman’s huge belly, “how far along are you?”
“What are you talking about?” The pregnant woman looked dumfounded.
“Oh geeze, I didn’t mean,” Keith stuttered but was interrupted by laughing.
“Soon, I’m due very soon, “
A sense of relief came over him as his passengers had a laugh at his expense and that’s when he hit the pot-hole in the road. The Pontiac jolted hard as it bounced out of the pot-hole causing the car to bounce into the air. The four commuters hit their heads on the headliner, and then came crashing back down. Following that was the sound of air escaping a quickly deflating tire then flying to pieces as the car came to a halt on the side of the highway.
“Crap,” Keith shouted, “is everyone alright?”
The two men in the back nodded as they gathered their cellular phones and other scattered possessions. The pregnant woman rubbed her stomach and breathed heavily as if she were in pain.
Keith popped the trunk and got out of the car. The trunk was a mess with papers from his presentation, loose tools, and various bits of trash that had made there way from the front of the car to the trunk, but never to the dumpster. He pushed the junk off his presentation and lifted the spare tire, a jack, and the tire iron out of the trunk.
The spare tire was a joke. It was a dinky little doughnut that had a weird greasy film on it. Keith jacked up the car the attempted wrench the lug nuts off the shredded tire, but they had apparently been tightened by God, because he couldn’t get them to budge.
After a few minutes of grunting and straining, the two men in the back seat exited the car.
“Hey listen, thanks for the ride and all, but we’re going to walk down to the next line, it’s just a few blocks from here,” one of the men said.
“Oh, yeah okay, sorry about all this, it’s been kind of a crazy morning,” Keith said straining as he pulled the tire iron with all his strength.
It wasn’t until the two men were out of sight that Keith realized he had been turning the tire the wrong direction, and after a few more minutes, he had the shredded tire off. The meager little doughnut slipped onto the bolts and Keith replaced the lug nuts. Keith put the shredded tire in trunk and almost crushed his surveillance camera, but caught himself making the mistake. He grinned to himself knowing he just avoided a huge blunder as he picked up the camera still wrapped in the towel and carefully put the tire into the trunk.
Keith returned to the driver’s seat and put the camera in the front passenger’s seat where the woman had been sitting. At first he thought she just walked to the next slug-line with the two other passengers and then he became aware of the heavy panting in the back seat.
His heart sunk as he looked in the rearview mirror. Reflected back at him was the pregnant woman sprawled out in the back grimacing between breaths. The jolt from the pot hole had triggered her contractions.
“Oh no! No, no, no. Look lady, I’m sorry, but you’re just going to have to hold it until the next line, I think it’s just up a few blocks.” At that moment, as Keith finished his sentence, her water broke.
“Holy hell!” Keith jumped back out of the car and opened the back door.
“Okay,” Keith stammered, “what do I do?”
“Take the sheets off the bed and boil some water on the stove!”
“But this is a car.”
“Don’t you think I know that!? Use it to take me to the hospital!”
Keith jumped back into the driver’s seat and got back on the highway. He managed to drive another mile before her screams vibrated the mirrors.
“It’s coming now, pull over, and help me!”
Keith pulled over and once again ran to the rear of the car. He opened the door to be greeted by the dress lifted up on the woman. He wasn’t quite sure what he was seeing, at first it looked as if her nether regions had blown a meat bubble, but then he realized he was looking at the head of the baby.
“It’s, what, I don’t, ah, and what do I do!?” Keith couldn’t form a complete sentence which was okay, because she couldn’t hear anything he was saying anyway.
Keith took off his jacket and his dress shit leaving him standing with his white undershirt. He then got his pocket knife. He had seen this done on television plenty of times, and he saw his cat have kittens once. He could do this.
After a few minutes the baby boy had been delivered and other motorists by this time had gathered and called an ambulance. Keith helped the woman out of the car as she held her new baby wrapped in his shirt.
“What are you going to name him?” Keith asked
“Well, what’s your name?”
“Keith.”
“I’ve always like Michael.”
Keith was two hours late for his presentation when he pulled up to work. He went to grab his camera that was wrapped in the towel in the front seat after he parked the car, but it wasn’t there. He got out of the car in the and opened the back door, and there was a little bundle on the seat.
“Oh no, she didn’t,” Keith trembled as he picked up the bundle.