It was a beautiful weekend day – a nice day for a picnic at the beach! Kristie called Jack, “Hey. What are you doing?”
“I’m getting ready to wax my car, but you could come over and hang out.”
She thought that watching Jack wax a car would be quite entertaining. He was good to look at. She told him that she would make up a picnic and be over soon. She made some ham and cheese sandwiches, grabbed a bag of Fritos, a couple of apples and bananas, and some Fig Newtons. She threw on some shorts and a tank top, grabbed a hat and a towel and headed over to his house across town.
Jack was a collector and an admirer of older cars. He had four of them parked out on the street. They all met with an unfortunate accident as someone lost control and plowed right into all of them. But the red ’64 Ford Falcon convertible was parked in the drive way and escaped the fate of the other cars.
Jack was already working on the wax job as Kristie arrived. She had the lunch put away in a small ice chest kept cold by a Diet Coke and two beers. Jack had the radio tuned into KFAT, a popular new country station. Kristie didn’t really care for the twangy patter or most of the songs which always seemed too simple and repetitive, but she was willing to force herself to enjoy it because she loved Jack and he liked it.
She just couldn’t stop thinking about him, dreaming about him, wanting to be with him every spare minute of the day and night. She would have liked to nail him right now if he wasn’t so preoccupied with the waxing. He looked so good in his khaki shorts, tank top, and work boots.
The car was tuff too, like tuff in The Outsiders way. She laid her towel down in the back seat where she found some dappled sunlight to tan her legs. “Good Ole Boys” by Waylon Jennings was playing on the radio. She could see the attraction to outlaw country music. She liked Waylon.
She was trying to study an article for her anthropology class, but she couldn’t keep her eyes off of Jack. She was day dreaming again, not focusing on her studies, when Jack announced that he was finished and began cleaning up.
She suggested enthusiastically that they should go for a drive in this nicely waxed beautiful red convertible. They could go up the coast and park in one of the turn-outs for a nice ocean view while they ate their lunch. She was having fun fantasizing about her hair flying in the wind, the blue ocean and sky, smiling and laughing, being happy with Jack. The whole scene flashed through her mind in technicolor.
Jack brought her back down to Earth. “We can’t,” he said
“Why not?”
“There’s no engine in the car. I pulled it out to work on it. It’s in the garage.”
“So you’ve spent the last two hours waxing a car with no engine?”
He just shrugged and gave her a hug and a quick peck. “Let’s eat!” They ate at the picnic table in the back yard. She had thought to bring a small flowered table cloth which she spread out with the meal she had prepared. It was a nice day. They were in love. What more could you ask for?
(First published 2/9/12)
