My Dear Cousin - Another Car

25^th May 2021

My Dear Cousin,

 

As I recall, I have now written to you about all the events of my family life ending with the three gifts I rejected from (Yule), his mother, and his sister. I have to remind you at this point that everything that was ever given to me by my family was at some point used as leverage to force me to do something I didn’t want to do.

I recall (Pony Girl) bringing up every dime she could remember that my old man had ever given me. She couldn’t remember that she had gotten more than eighty thousand dollars from the man at this point, and the last time I had accepted anything from the family they had harassed me about it until I was too depressed to go to work.

I calculated something like fifteen thousand dollars in lost wages from that, but I’m sure if I had mentioned that they would have said it wasn’t their fault. That was my family for you. They did whatever they wanted to me, and I was just supposed to take it without complaint. I defend myself in any way, and I’m the villain.

In any case, the old man got on another of his legal drug benders and wound up in a manic state where he was just spending money like it was going to go bad in a week and this led (Pickle) to come to me and say that I could have my (Pony Girl)'s old car as she was getting the old man’s SUV now he was getting a new one.

“I can tell your answer by the look on your face,” he said seeing how I felt. Her car was a Saturn SC2 and where as it was in better shape than the Saturn SL2 they had tortured me over the thing had problems I didn’t want to inherit. I recall that the sunroof was no longer working, and they had needed to do work on the power train.

At some point after that I asked for money for college which I was promised but never got. The old man once again said he would give me money and never did then he got himself a second SUV instead and when he found himself in a ditch with blown out tires he stopped doing whatever drug he had been taking as of late and (Pony Girl) became his power of attorney.

They returned the second SUV, and I got nothing, as expected, I never got anything from that old man that was of value.

I do recall at some point (Pickle) telling me that (Pony Girl) had said she took all of the old man’s money and put it in her bank account so that I couldn’t ask for what he had promised me ever again. This is felony larceny by the law, but I guess it doesn’t work that way once you have power of attorney.

Best,

 

Richard Leland Neal

Resurrection

3^rd July 2012

Dear Cassi,

I picked up my old Saturn today and found that all that was wrong was a broken ring seal. Where this ring seal was I cannot say but its damaged nature made my gears move to the side and not connect.

Further along, I learned that his was under warrantee and that my car had been repaired for free. Had I not replaced the car this would have been a blessed event. Then the ten days it took for them to work on my car makes me think that there is more to it than just a ring seal.

       

The mechanic had warned me that the transmission could fail soon rendering the repair I had paid nearly three thousand dollars for useless.

The car I got back from him drove poorly and was so far out of alignment that I could hardly drive it as far as my work. If ever there was a time to give pass on repairs and buy a new car it was then.

I was roused just before five in the evening by Pickles who had said that Ken asked him to waken me. I showered and dressed and we went to the bank to get more money for the repairs to my home. It was then to the mechanic to see again the car that I have driven for all the years of our knowing each other.

The drive home placed me in somber thought as to whether I had done the right thing. Then what difference did it make? Had all the universe come to me and said yes or no it still could not have undone what had been done.

       

There was finality in what I had done and I suppose that loomed in my mind. It’s funny though, the mechanic said that he had few clients as ‘mellow’ as I. He told me that he wished all his customers were like me and that some folk made him uncomfortable as soon as they walked in the door.

Never look back,

Richard Leland Neal

A Long Drive

21^st June 2012

Dear Cassi,

Yesterday on my way into work I ran over a smashed traffic cone. It would be hard to say if that had something to do with my car no longer being able to move in reverse. Given that I just had so much work done to the transmission and it was making noise long before the cone I doubt that bit of orange plastic could have done any more than brought up the inevitable.

I had looked at cars before and I knew what I wanted so I jumped on line and looked it up. I found a blue Honda LX for fifteen thousand dollars and, knowing that if nothing else my car was unreliable, I made way to the dealer to buy the car. I called first to see if it was still on the lot and it was one of two the other being white.

It was a hard ride to the dealer as my old Saturn had a check engine light burning brightly the whole time I was on the freeway. To harden the point traffic was slow.

I failed to shower before leaving the house as I just wanted this over with and the smell of my body was bothering me. Folks have told me that I react strongly to smell, but some of those folks were Turtle Nose and his friends. Well, who cares what they think.

I made it around nine sixteen in the morning and they handed me the keys and said “take her out, see how she feels.” I had never gone on a test drive without a sales man before but the use of the Civic came naturally to me as it was much like my old car.

I paid the man and had the Saturn towed to the mechanic telling him that he could take his time as I had another car.  He was shocked to hear this but I needed something I could trust to get me to work every night.

Deal with your problems as best you can,

Richard Leland Neal