My Bug

We grew up modestly.  Our home was a three bedroom house, barely one thousand square feet.  But we owned it and the piece of land where it sat.  Joining our land on either side were my grandparent’s houses, which gave us plenty of room to roam.  The summer before my senior year, Daddy promised me a car.  I had learned to drive the family’s Chevrolet Impala, a big car for a small country girl.  So you can only imagine how we felt when my brother and I were on our way to school that first day in my Bug!  I had already purchased a “Keep the Faith, Baby” bumper sticker for it at the KOA Campground store out by the Interstate and we were good to go.  It was game day and I was pretty sure my brother was real proud of me, as he glanced at me in my cheerleader uniform.  We were going to school on our own wheels!  I couldn’t have done it without my brother, though.  You see, Daddy bought the car for $200.  It was several years old, but looked REALLY good when my brother and I got it shined up!  However, I really couldn’t have driven it without him.  It took both of us!  While I was driving, he was busy holding it into fifth gear!  It was the poor old Bug’s only flaw!  The gear shift wouldn’t stay in fifth gear.  Junior’s hand got pretty tired while we were driving that first day, but it was all worth it when we pulled up into our own assigned parking space at Pearl River Central High School.  I was a Senior and he was only an eighth grader whose sister was Miss Teen, a Cheerleader, Editor of the Yearbook, Class Treasurer, Member of the Beta Club, the FHA, and Hall of Fame, but most importantly, that day, the driver of a Volkswagen Bug.  Little did he know, she was also a member of the “I joined everything because I couldn’t decide what I want to do” club. However, I took school work very seriously.  I was an excellent student, number four in my graduating class, even won the Crisco Award that year in Home Economics.  I was a friend to all the boys on the football team, but never dated any of them.  I really loved all of them!  I was proud of every win we took from the opponents and cherished every sweaty victory, when those boys carried me off the field.  But they had a dark side and showed it, on the very first day I drove my very own car to school.  The minute I came out of sixth period class, Junior came running up to me yelling, “Liz! You are not gonna believe that them boys did!” 

“What boys?” I asked, trying to get in a word. 

“Them football boys!”  he yelled, almost hysterically. 

Running all the way out to the assigned parking space we had been so proud of that morning, we saw her, the Bug, there, still in her parking space.  Only now, she was lying at rest on her side.  She was almost grinning at us as we approached.

Furious, Junior was stomping around, doing nothing but circling constantly around the Bug.  “What’re you gonna do?” He asked, pacing.

About that time, Jay, John and some of the other football players approached like nothing was wrong.  “What happened here?” Jay asked, grinning, along with the rest of ‘em. 

“Put it back on its wheels!” I demanded, stomping my own foot, hard, “Right NOW!  My daddy’s gonna kill you!” I shouted.

By the look in my eyes, they knew I was dead serious, so they literally lifted it up and set it back upright.  Upon close investigation, I noticed not a scratch or dent was on the Bug.  “Thank you!” I shouted and Junior and I got in the Bug and drove off. 

We sat quietly all the way home, Junior holding the Bug in fifth gear the whole way.  But as we sat in silence, we both knew that this was a story we would tell, over and over again for many years to come- but today, not to another soul, especially not to our parents!