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Awakened by the phone ringing at 11:35 p.m., I fumble for
the receiver beside my bed. Who would be calling at this
time of night?
???Hello,??? I mumble.
???Mom, I??™m not in jail.??? The voice at the other end belongs
to my 21-year-old daughter, Rachel.
???What???? My heart is beginning to race.
.
???I??™m not actually. I??™m fine. It??™s my car.???
???What??™s the matter????
???My car was impounded. I found out that since it??™s
registered in your name, you have to be the one to get it
out.???
I knew earlier in the day that her car had been towed and
she had been trying to locate it. Now she was at the city
car impoundment lot that closed at midnight, or so I
thought. It??™s located in the industrial area of a city of
900,000 people. I wasn??™t at all familiar with that part of
the city and I avoid even in daylight. Travel it alone at
night? Certainly not.
I awaken my husband, explaining the situation. Fortunately
his concern for our daughter wins out over his disgust at
being awakened. The two of us drive down the darkened
streets together.
???I hope some day that she will believe the signs she reads,???
I say wistfully. ???She parked in the half-empty parking lot
of an apartment building to visit a friend this morning and
ended up visiting for three hours. She ignored the sign
that said ???unauthorized vehicles will be towed at the
owner??™s expense.??™???
A college student, Rachel had a penchant for parking in
unauthorized places in the cramped lots at school, but this
was her first towing experience.
When we arrive at the impoundment lot, Rachel and her
room-mate are waiting for us and are in a good mood. In
fact, she got me laughing too. The woman at the desk stares
at us in disbelief. No doubt she had seen a good many
confrontations between angry parents and children in similar
situations.
???Why are you laughing???? I ask.
???It was a choice between crying and laughing,??? Rachel says.
???I choose to laugh.???
???And why did you wait until 11:30 to pick up your car???? I
ask.
She explains that although she had gotten off work at 8
p.m., she had chosen to watch her favorite T.V. program at
10 p.m. as a way to ???de-stress??? before she and her friend
left in search of her car.
All it takes is my husband??™s driver??™s license for
identification, and she was free to take her rusted 1991
Chevy Sprint home. She still had a hefty fee to pay, but
that??™s now her problem.
As my husband and I drive home, a little short of sleep, I
think of other parents who get phone calls in the night from
their children??” who really are in jail, or from
police reporting that their child was in an accident, or
worse.
A ???jailed??? car is trivial in comparison. So many things in
life are irritating, annoying, and inconvenient at the time,
but are of no lasting consequences. I think my daughter??™s
philosophy is a good one. I, too, choose to laugh.
?© Janet Seever 2004
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The mother of two adult
children, Janet Seever lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada,
with her husband, Dennis. She writes for Word Alive magazine
and has had articles published previously in magazines and
on the Web. You can reach her at: jseever1@ shaw.ca or read
more of her writing at www.inscribe.org/janetseever
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Blessings to you today
Bob Johnston
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