"Charge system fault." That's what I googled in the waiting room. The warning light had just come on in the Rover. Red and important. Didn't know what it meant so I asked my drunken know-it-all friend.
Google told me precisely what would happen next. One by one, my car's electrical functions would shut down. Then it would stop completely. Just a matter of time. Get to a mechanic immediately.
We got a little sideways news from the cancer docs that day. The kind that reminds you that the things you thought were under control have other plans. We made some dark jokes on the way to the parking structure. Then we fired up the Rover and headed home. Pretty much at the same time we hit bumper-to-bumper freeway traffic on the 5, that damned light came back on. Then the systems began shutting down. I like to think I am calm under all sorts of pressure but I was becoming unglued.
"It's going to be ok," Calene said, reaching over to touch my arm.
I made it to the next exit. Things were really going wrong with the vehicle. I found a strip mall and nosed into the parking lot just as the Rover shut down like a stubborn beast, refusing to move another inch.
Nice strip mall. Donut shop. Taqueria. A security guy sauntered over to wonder about my precarious parking job. Then we called AAA and waited for our tow.
One thing you learn when cancer invades your home is that each day is as dark as you make it. Being upbeat is a choice. Not a fucking easy choice, but a choice.
"At least we weren't in a crash?" I told Calene. "That would have really sucked..”
"And we didn't break down on the freeway," she replied. "We'd be waiting for a tow on the shoulder."
I called National to order a rental car. John Wayne was on the way home.
"And we can Uber from here instead of having to call someone to say we're stranded in Santa Ana and need a ride, like in the old days."
"And we can afford a nice rental instead of you having to beg to use my car," she added."I don't beg to use your car."
"Hm.”
The tow truck guy showed up. Super positive. Small round man with bowlegs and a limp. Sweat poured off his bald head as he hooked up the Rover but he was a mountain of positivity. I walked back over to Calene, now sitting in the shade on a curb. The society garlic behind her was overpowering and I promised myself I would never plant it in our garden again.
"And we ended up in a place with tacos," she reminded me, picking up the gratitude thread.
So we went inside and ate rice and beans with tacos and drank ice cold Coke from an old fashioned bottle, making the best of a sideways cancer day.