I work really early in the morning and I drive a very dark highway parallel to the Columbia River in Portland Oregon. When I am going to work there are barely any cars on the road, mostly truckers heading to the industrial part of town. The road has street lights but few and far between. As I was driving I kept seeing a shadow in the back of my mini van and also kept hearing some rattling going on. Just a faint rattling. I kept looking in my rear view mirror and would see this shadow cast on the back seat. I literally thought someone was hunkered down in the far back seat. It was possible because I did notice one of my doors had been unlocked when I got into the van that morning. I continued driving all the while hearing the faint tat-tat-tat-tat-tat and seeing the shadow lurking; my hands getting sweatier by each tire rotation.
After a seven minute drive that felt like forever I turned onto the main drag near my work where there are tons of street lights and luckily the shadow disappeared! I still heard the tat-tat-tat-tat but at least nobody was in my back seat ready to pounce on me! When I pulled into work I investigated what the rattling was and I found that there was a paper bag lodged under the stroller in the cargo area that was rattling every time I drove over a bump, hump, pothole, etc...
As I sat there in the parking lot of my work and thought about this, I started laughing and remembering a similar story of when I was younger. My aunt Linda, cousin Carey and I went to a drive in movie (yes, a drive in; if that doesn't take some of you back) in Lake Elsinore, CA.
I remember it was Eddie & The Cruisers that we were seeing.
There we sat Aunt Linda, Carey and I in the front seat of the car, the speaker hanging off our window. Carey and I eagerly peering through the front window glued to the movie. I however was kinda short at the time (still am). I think I was all of 8 so I was having a hard time getting comfortable looking over the dashboard so my aunt decided she was going to move the seat forward but failed to mention that to us. She slowly reached her hand down the side of the seat to push the button in order to move the seat and all of a sudden we heard a loud tat-tat-tat-tat-tat (rattling sound).
Both Carey and I looked at each other frantically and pulled our feet up onto the bench seat. "What the heck is that?" we both squealed.
Aunt Linda, of course, knowing darn good and well what was making the sound continued to play it up saying she didn't know. We calmed down for a bit, only for it to happen again a few minutes later, tat-tat-tat-tat-tat.
She apparently was getting a kick out of us squealing and huddling on the front seat. I think by the end of the episode she was laughing so hard she was almost crying. And after a few more times she finally told us that she was trying to move the seat forward but there was a paper bag stuck under the seat that was rattling every time she tried to move the seat.
We really thought there was a rattlesnake in the car, under the seat and it was going to strike us at any moment. Our poor little hearts! They were probably beating just as fast as mine was yesterday. She was always a jokester though so we should have known something was up.
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Needless to say we (I) didn't watch much of the movie then but years later when I watched it again, this memory came flooding back as it did yesterday.
R.I.P Aunt Linda "KC" Sue born July 6, 1949-died February 16, 1999. Gone in body but not forgotten.
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I totally thought you were gonna say there was a rattlesnake in your van!
ReplyDeleteAunt Linda sounded like a fun Aunt!