Now You See Me, Now You Don't

...continued from the previous post

Dear Boo and Bubble,

As much as it seems that parents have eyes in the backs of their heads or a sixth sense or an impenetrable intuition, there are times when none of that makes any difference. Children have a way of making some situations like a chapter out of Alice in Wonderland – where up is down and down is up.

We were driving down the highway the other day when a Ford Tunderbird passed us. This had Captain reminiscing about how great granddaddy Cot bought the very first four-seater Thunderbird model way back in 1958. Anybody who knew granddaddy would also know that the car was white – to deflect the hot Florida sun – and had a hard top since he wouldn't have a convertible. At the time, Captain was eleven, but older brother Cot, Jr., had attained the magical age threshold of fifteen which meant he could drive. The T-Bird was his first car.

For Cot, Jr., the car proved to be like a double-edged sword. With it's classic, sleek lines and sporty interior, the T-Bird gave him an edge when it came to the girls, but because of those very same characteristics, the car could easily be spotted anywhere. One Saturday night, he pulled out from 7070 Salamanca Ave. in Jacksonville to go pick up his girlfriend for a date. The house sat on a piece of property separated from the St. John's River by a wooded bluff that had a dirt road running its length, but was not yet developed except for periodic street lamps.

Around 10:00 granddaddy Cot got out of bed and came to the kitchen to get a drink of water. As he passed through the den, something caught his eye out the window overlooking the bluff. He went out on the back patio for a better look. There, in the beam of one of the lamps, sat a white car – a very familiar car – with wide whitewall-tires and pointed tail fins – parked. (You boys will have to ask your dad what this means!)

Granddaddy monitored the car from a chair in the den. Cot, Jr., was due home by 11:00. About 10: 45, the headlights came on and the engine cranked, its sound carrying from the bluff across the yard to the house. Granddaddy sat patiently in the chair, waiting.

On the stroke of 11:00, the T-Bird pulled into the driveway. Cot, Jr., gingerly opened the front door, trying not to wake anybody. He noticed the stream of light coming from the den.....not a good sign.

Granddaddy came into the entrance hall.

“Son, I saw a white T-Bird over on the bluff tonight,” he said sternly, no hint of question in his voice.

“Really....that's amazing, isn't it?”

“What is?”

“That there is another car like ours around here. I didn't know that, did you?”

“No.....well.....” Granddaddy found himself stuttering.

“Well, goodnight.....oh, and thanks for waiting up for me. Means a lot.”

With that, Cot, Jr., slipped down the hall and into his room, leaving Granddaddy a little flabbergasted that his certainty of the situation had been so swiftly and deftly dismantled by his son. Until the day he died, Granddaddy never doubted what he knew......but he was always on the lookout for another white T-Bird....just in case.