Maureen (Reen) White:  

Well hello and thanks for stopping by. What have I been up to? Why, writing short stories for one thing. And here's a little sample: Happy Motoring - A Cautionary Tale or Careening Car Shatters Small Street's Serenity! The Characters: Mr and Mrs No 35 and ELP (excitable little poodle) Mr and Mrs No 38 Ms No 42 Mr and Mrs 34 The setting: A quiet one-block street located between the tranquil town's main avenue and its secondary avenue. There are ten houses on each side of the street, which is approximately 20 feet wide. Parking is permitted on both sides of the tree-lined street and at any given time you can find a half dozen cars parked on the street. It is 3 p.m. on a sunny Tuesday afternoon in February. Our Story: Mr No 35 normally parks his Lincoln Continental on the street in a designated handicapped parking space in front of his house, which is directly across from No 34. Generally, the car is parked facing the wrong way so that Mr No 35 can exit his car from the driver's side directly onto the verge rather than the street. Mr No 35 makes numerous excursions with his car each day, beginning in the early hours of the morning and accompanied by the Excitable Little Poodle. Around 3 p.m. on Tuesday, Mr and Mrs No 35, along with ELP, got into the Lincoln. Here, a muddle occurs. Apparently another car was traveling down the street and Mr No 35 pulled out in front of it. Whether Mr No 35 was trying to get ahead of the moving car, as one neighbor stated (possibly true as Mr No 35 seems somewhat reckless and impatient to some observers), or simply did not notice the moving car is unclear. There must have been a moment of awareness of the other car because Mr No 35 seems to have turned the wheel hard to the right. Somehow, the car shot across the street and up the adjoining driveways of No 38 and No 42 crushing the planters Ms No 42 had so carefully placed on her side of the boundary between the driveways. The tale of that border skirmish is a story for another day. The Lincoln scraped its right side against the side of Mr No 38's house and knocked over the fence enclosing his back yard. Fence down, the car continued through the yard, leveling the corner of the raised flower bed, scattering trash bins and running over toys. It was later confirmed that Mrs No 35 was shouting "The Brake! The brake!" The ELP added a bit of canine hilarity to the general atmosphere with some energetic barking. The front left of the car smashed into the right corner of the garden shed tearing off some of the sheathing and knocking out some of the roof support. Then, with a deft bit of maneuvering, Mr No 35 (mostly) avoided the in-ground pool, splintered the side of the woodshed, and ran over the diving board. The car continued on behind the pool and completed its merry jaunt by crashing through the fence between No 38 and No 34. The car's left front tire was flattened and the right rear tire was in the pool. This type of activity is rarely seen on the little street or even in the town. The town's emergency squads leapt into action. Two fire engines, a rescue vehicle, assorted police vehicles and a flatbed tow truck arrived. Neighbors gathered. Various personnel - rescue and official - surveyed, analyzed, observed, deduced, and generally milled about. As you can imagine, this degree of excitement brought out the media. The local newspaper sent a photographer and two television reporters, with camera operators in tow, converged on the scene. A chopper, sent by one television station, circled the area for close to an hour. All this activity attracted even more bystanders. By now people were pouring out of their houses. Mr No 34 came out to see and asked one neighbor if Mr No 35's car had been hit, causing this devastation. The neighbor fixed Mr No 34 a hard stare and walked away. It turns out the neighbor was Mr No 35! Mrs No 35 was standing nearby holding the ELP. Happily, none ...Expand for more