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A quote: “No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave.” ~~ Calvin Coolidge
I’ll start with a story …
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When she said “I’m pregnant”, he froze. The next day he had driven half way across the country before something reached out and seized him as he stood at the pump putting close to his last $5 in the gas tank.
Just enough got him back. Just enough got him the courage to marry her, stick to a job and welcome the tiny being he had made and briefly thought to abandon.
He thought his life full until he stooped to hold the son of his son, blessing that day at the gas station and praying for just enough years.
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Now, it’s your turn.
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. featured image, cropped, Adobe Stock standard license
Cameron says: My wife and kids were in the diner attached to the gas station while I talked to the attendant.
“Anything else, sir?”
“I don’t see many Ahlians on this world. Explain.”
“A few years back, my sister’s ship landed near here.”
“I’d heard about it but the ship was gone before we could arrive.”
“The owner fixed it. I have pledged myself as an apprentice in gratitude.”
I gave him my card. “The field office will get you a work permit and have a copy sent to your embassy.”
“Thank you, Sentinel. Now I’d like to top off the coolant in your radiator. It’s going to be hot today.”
Navig8r says: “Regular or ethyl?” asked Joe.
“Ethyl, check the oil and wash the windshields please.” Our standing joke as we rolled up on our one-speed bicycles.
“Y’all here to trade them empty bottles for sody pop?”
“Yep.” Joe was from someplace else. Here, it was just pop.
The swimming hole had been glorious. After the pop and bubble gum, we took the change next door to splurge on ten-cent ice cream cones and ten-cent hamburgers to make a balanced meal.
All next week, we would have our sunburns to remind ourselves and all our friends how glorious it had truly been.
Cather Hargreaves had been five years old when his father took a job with North American Aviation and moved the family cross-country from Detroit to Los Angeles. It had been a time of austerity, and while the company would pay professional movers to pack and move all their belongings, airplane tickets for the family were out of the question. So they’d all piled into the old station wagon and headed west.
They’d been stopped at a gas station somewhere in Oklahoma, with pumps that looked like they’d been installed when Route 66 first went through here. Mom had taken him and his older sister inside to use the restroom while Dad paid the attendant for the fill-up.
On the way in, Cather spied an old-fashioned pop machine with the bottles of pop behind a long glass door. The car’s air conditioning had gone out somewhere west of St. Louis, and a bottle of pop would really hit the spot right now. Except when he tried to ask his mother, she hustled him right on past.
As they came back out, an older woman was standing beside the pop machine. “Would you like a bottle of pop?”
Even as Cather opened his mouth to say oh, yes, his mother leaned over to him. “Cather, say no, thank you.”
Cather hesitated, torn between his mother’s warning look and his desperate desire for that bottle of pop. His mother reached down to deliver a warning pinch to his arm, just above the elbow. “Cather, I said to tell the nice lady no, thank you.”
Although Cather could sense trouble brewing, the words stuck in his throat. Overwhelmed by the conflict, he burst into tears, at which point his mother grabbed him and hauled him bodily back to the car.
Dupin says: Gas pumps. Big deal. This place hasn’t been open in decades. Look at the pumps and the roof. It’s about to cave in.
Gotta move on, but can’t. Need gas.
Push car to the back. Grab bag. Still okay.
Found hose. Good.
Empty glass bottle. Even better.
Now some car that hasn’t sat too long. Gas or hotwire it.
Hoofing it. This is crazy. Need to get there by nightfall. Otherwise, too late. Too late for us all.
Got the cure for the human race in my bag, but outa gas. And now the world may be out of life.
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