💾 Archived View for republic.circumlunar.space › users › joneworlds › 2021-10-08-piece-of-truck.gmi captured on 2023-05-24 at 18:09:14. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2021-12-03)
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The other day I was watching the dwarfs again, working away in their hot-rod shop. They've made some goofy new creation out of a pickup truck. It's not painted yet, and so I notice it's my old green F250! I can tell from the dents by the fuel cap. I wonder how many times that thing's been wrecked and re-made since last I saw it back in the winter. Now they got some kind of mid-engine layout going, with the body of a Smart FourTwo in front and the bed of my truck behind. Big mud tires all around, and chrome bumpers welded at angles onto the sides of it all. Looks like a giant grasshopper.
I remember back some years when I got that truck. Beth and the kids and I were living in an apartment in a rickety old walk-up building, and it was rough times. I'll never forget the hot murderous rage our neighbors would lay into us with. I know little kids are noisy, and little kids with developmental problems can be even more so, but we were doing the best we could. We were scared, but we couldn't find anyplace else to live.
That's when I got this idea to borrow some money from my dad, and buy this old truck & camper combo. We'd put the kids into it as soon as they woke up in the morning, and we'd drive off. Park it someplace there was a playground, have some breakfast. Then maybe Beth or I would go off to a job, and the other would spend the day with the Ethan and Tara in the park. They'd have the camper to come back to for naps, for toilet, for food, or just a rest. It's weird how much better everybody's emotional regulation can be, when you're mostly outside. And we'd all meet there together again at the end of the day for supper, and get ready for bed. Drive back to the apartment after the kids fall asleep, and carry them inside. And that's how we'd live every day for some months, just to stay away from our neighbors. I actually thought the camper life worked pretty good for us, although I think I was probably more into it than Beth was.
Anyways, eventually we found these town-homes here, and settled down. But we hadn't been here more than two months before the AVs finally tracked Beth down. And it wasn't two months after that, when the kids and I happened upon the ogre's lair while walking up in the hills behind. And well, ever since that day I've been here all on my own.
Maybe that's why it's something to see that piece of my truck. All changed and carved up as it is, after everything what's happened as time's gone by. Aren't we all.