A Loose Screw

/ Quirky Girl

An endless parade of buses, tractors, and horrifyingly inexperienced high school drivers finally pass.

And then the typical bickering and brawling commenced, mere moments after we made our way out of the school parking lot.

My precious darlings wasted no time, cutting right to the chase of intentionally annoying and aggravating each other.

And me.

Someone in the car was obviously an expert.

On everything.

But that someone clearly wasn’t me.

And then the fun really began.

Stop making that stupid noise!

Turn that down! You’re gonna go deaf!

He’s being stupid!

Why are you being so stupid?

Stop acting like a baby!

Meh.

I continued driving among the bickering insanity when I noticed something… off.

And not just figuratively speaking, either.

I panicked.

The brake and gas pedals…

What the…???

Where did they go???

My life flashed before my eyes.

Was this seriously how things were going to end?

In a malodorous, sweaty-gym-sock-stinking,  juice-box-stained deathtrap, with those two arguing beasts screeching and howling?

I don’t think so.

Over my dead body.

Ooh, no.

That was bad.

But what was going on?

Did I just break the brake?

Did I unwittingly have some sort of deranged Hulk-like moment and destroy a crucial car control with my freakishly strong right foot?

A hunk of plastic unceremoniously rolled backward and magically revealed the presumed missing controls.

And then it rolled under my seat.

Okay, that was a good start.

Except there was still a mysterious piece of rogue plastic on the loose that obviously broke off from somewhere.

I pulled into the post office parking lot, the very place my boys both harbor an unjustifiable aversion to, in an attempt to figure out what the hell was going on.

A large heap of plastic with a loose screw surfaced from under my seat.

I hadn’t the slightest clue what is was.

It vaguely resembled a pedal-shaped…

Something or other.

What did I know?

But the brake pedal was still intact.

The gas pedal was still intact.

So I determined it was safe enough to continue driving.

I mean, relatively speaking.

What with those shrieking banshee passengers and all.

Evidently, that heap of plastic turned out to be part of a vent that was situated near the brake pedal.

A vent part that I must’ve kicked and sent rolling.

Dangerously rolling, at that.

Well, that’s what happens when you discover you’ve got a loose screw.

Or two…

~Happy Friday, friends! Hope you all have a terrific weekend!~

This thing could easily be just a bonus piece of plastic with no justifiable purpose... right?

This thing could easily be just a bonus piece of plastic with no justifiable purpose… right?

36 thoughts on “A Loose Screw”

  2. Oh wow!! So glad that it didn’t turn out to be more serious, but so scary! When I was 16, a part of my car snapped and left my shifter without a way to go into gear. Luckily my mom was with me and we glided into a parking lot. We discovered that it did have first and second gear, but third and fourth didn’t exist. My dad is a mechanic so he was able to repair it, but it was a faulty structure with the angle necessary to shift gears and was a continual problem.

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  8. No rogue pieces of plastic in my Honda to date, but have experienced an inoperative brake pedal due to a tennis ball (a dog toy) somehow rolling underneath and becoming wedged there. Made for a scary moment as I flew past the park, trying to un-wedge it with my toes. My old VW had a “black hole” under the passenger seat where wallets, keys, and other small items vanished. They would reappear days later, when I braked hard. Usually after I’d given up and cancelled my credit cards or had a new key made. 🙂

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    • It figures that tennis ball would end up under your brake pedal instead of falling into The Black Hole. 😆

      I almost wish my car had a black hole for all the empty water bottles and crumbs and other unidentifiable objects my boys leave behind. 😂

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  9. I think I’ve figured the perfect job for you and the kids….After a mechanic repairs a vehicle, you and the kids should be hired to take it for the “test drive.” Based on everyone’s (how do I phrase this…) interactions, if the car survives the test drive (intact) the customer can feel more comfortable the mechanic did a good job. What do you think?

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