Country Car Ride:

However, there were still good times to look at. One of those was our first day of summer. I remember that Sunday. Kat came into our rooms around ten in the morning. She sat on my bed with a smile on her face.

“Good morning,” she whispered. I sat up in bed, blinking at her.

“What is it?” I asked. “Did something happen?” Kat smiled as she shook her head.

“No,” she replied. “Let’s go out today.” I raised an eyebrow at her.

“Huh?” I asked. Kat patted me on the leg.

“Get up,” she said. “I’ll go get your brother.” She climbed off of the bed and walked out of my room.

I watched her, blinking. Okay…, I thought. Once I took a shower and got dressed, I headed down to the living room to find Kat and Lyle sitting on the couch, waiting for me. I stood in the doorway and blinked at them.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Lyle agreed. Kat gave a huge grin.

“Let’s go out today!” she said. Lyle and I still didn’t get where she was going with this.

“Why?” he asked. “Did something happen?” Kat shook her head.

“Then, what is it?” I asked. Kat pressed her hands together.

“Thought that we could all go for a little drive around the countryside,” she replied. Lyle and I looked at her with big eyes. My little jaw dropped.

“No way!” I gasped. Kat held up her car keys.

“Shall we get going?” she asked. Lyle and I gasped in joy.

“Yeah!” we cheered. We followed her out to the car like little puppies. We had a nice German car. Not a sports car, a Volkswagen Karmann Ghia convertible. This was one of those German cars from the mid-50’s. I call the car “Bertie.” Kat keeps him in the garage because he’s too expensive to fuel up on a daily basis. So, we only take him out on special occasions. Kat, Lyle, and I all walked out to garage. I ran my little hand along Bertie’s bumper. His candy apple red paint screamed, “Take me outside, now!”

“Hi Bertie!” I cheered. Lyle groaned as he always did when I call the car by his name.

“Stop calling it that,” he grumbled. I ignored him and turned to Kat.

“Can we ride with the top down today?” I asked. She shrugged her shoulders at me.

“Sure,” she said. “I don’t see why not.”

“Yay!” I said. Lyle hopped in the passenger seat while I got in the back. Kat turned the car to start up Bertie. I counted down to the open road as the garage down drew open.

“Everyone all belted in?” Kat asked as she looked out her rear-view mirror.

“Yeah!” Lyle and I said.

“Okay,” she said. “Let’s go!” She put Bertie in reserve and pulled out.

Winds whipping around my dark brown pigtails as Bertie curved the rood. The bright sun shining down on Kat’s dark brown boyish haircut and Lyle’s equally dark brown messy mop as we kept riding along the back roads. I heard my own laughter circling my head. Kat drives along with the speed limit. Lyle sat back, listening to the British rock flooding the speakers of Bertie’s satellite radio. Kat would occasionally glance up at me in the rear view mirror.

“Enjoying this drive?” she asked me and Lyle.

“Yeah!” I called against the wind and the music. Lyle just nodded at her question. Kat focused back on the road. I paused as for a second, I thought I saw her smiling at me. Sure, she smiled once in a while, but not like that. I have only seen Kat smile like that once before. It was in an old photograph on the piano in the living room. She was younger then and standing with a young man, leaning against Bertie. She looked nothing like the woman we knew today. No pearls and no power suits. She had on shorts and a halter top with shades on her head. Her hair came down to her small shoulders then. The young man was dressed like a sailor next to her. They both grinned like wild puppies. Lyle and I always tried to guess the story behind that picture.

This led me to find out why.

We pulled up to a stop light. I looked over at Kat.

“Kat,” I said. “Why do you love Bertie so much?” She glanced over at me in the rear mirror.

“Well,” she said. “It’s very valuable to me.”

“Why?” I asked.

“It was a present from your father,” Kat said with some distance in her voice. I gave her a strange look.

“From Daddy?” I asked. The light suddenly changed green and she pulled away. I stared at the back of her head.

“What about Daddy?” I asked. I noticed that even Lyle looked up and took notice.

“It was our first date,” Kat went on. “He pulled up at my dorm building and buzzed me to come downstairs. We took this car out for a car on our date. I didn’t really care where we went at the time. I was just happy to be with him.”

Bertie turned the curve past a cow pasture.

“This car was like his first girlfriend to him,” she went on. “I didn’t mind it. In fact, he and his car became my way to see all of Germany on the weekends until we got married.”

Bertie crossed over slowly on a bridge over a gurgling brook. Kat stopped the car on the other side. Her hands trembled as she gripped the steering wheel.

“Ever since he’s been gone,” she summed up with her voice choked with emotion. “I haven’t been able to part with this car.” Lyle and I sat in silence. So that’s it…, I thought. Kat recomposed herself after taking a short breath.

“Is there anywhere that you would like to stop to eat lunch?” she asked in her usual calm tone. Lyle and I were quick to perk up.

“I want to eat at a country buffet!” I announced.

“I don’t mind, really,” Lyle replied. Kat loosened her grip on the wheel.

“Alright then,” she said. “A country buffet it is.” She drove Bertie all the way back to the main dirt road back to town. That was the last of the peaceful days that we would ever experience in Germany.