The silver colored Honda Civic, the chrome coated "Orifice" on wheels, my 107,000 mile menopausal vehicle that has just cost me $3000 in repairs, is gone. Vanished into the ether, disappeared into the urban void, in a single night transformed from my single most valuable possession into a few tiny particles of broken glass left behind from a broken window. Mr. Leiken presents his magnificent, magical, mysterious teleporting car; WATCH him effortlessly make it vanish.....
....now only if he knew where it had been "vanished" too.
I've mentioned how much I dislike cars, my sneering tolerance held in check by the apprehension of having to live without one. Like a doomed victim in a horror movie, I live under a geas, an automobile curse that torments me from the moment I purchase a vehicle through a series of endless repairs, costly upkeep, fender bender accidents and petty tickets; a bottomless pit of angst that ends in an orgasmic crescendo of horror the moment I discover my car is GONE.
When you have a car stolen it takes a moment for the facts of the situation to fit in; like a computer warming up it takes several seconds for the brain to register the empirical data presented before it, for the facts to become reality. Here's the sequence:
1. SURPRISE - Where is my car? I know I parked it here.
2. DENIAL - Someone must have moved it. I know it can't be STOLEN.
3. ANGER - Some Mutherf---r just took my car!
4. RAGE - I'm going to kill that Mutherf----r who took my car!
5. WHINING - This is so unfair!!!
6. BITTERNESS - I hate the world and all the lucky fools who still have their cars.
7. ACCEPTANCE - Time to write a blog about it.
I've gotten semi-accustomed to having my car being broken into and stolen over the years, possess an immune system toughened through a series of vehicular fiascos that enables me to process the emotional aspects expediently. I file a police report, call my insurance, walk out onto the street just to make sure the thief didn't take the car on a joy ride and leave it parked nearby.
Nope.
Not much I can do now, just have to suck this up and move on. The police officer informs me that a Honda Civic was stolen yesterday not more than a mile from where I live, that Honda's are the most widely stolen car in America.
Thanks for that, Chief.
He's right though, as great as they are, Honda's are a magnet for thieves, I can't afford to drive one because inevitably one day you won't have one to drive. What do I drive next? Do I buy a clunker and drive it until dies, or do I go to a dealership that's offering a low interest rate and no money down? Should I just forgo thinking about owning a car and lease? Perhaps I can work out a deal with a student and buy a car from one of their parents, almost every kid at my school has at least a parent or uncle who is a mechanic.
Except they all drive Hondas.
Perhaps I should just hoof it and try to take the bus...
No, not really an option. Not in LA. Not unless you want to completely give up your lifestyle and freedom.
Just because the horror movie ends, doesn't mean that you can't have a sequel - have to keep the franchise going. If my cars were horror movies they would have been titled:
PANDORA'S BOX
It looked like a good car, it was boon - a gift from father to son. Little did they know what lurked beneath the engine.
THE CAR THAT WAS TOWED
It was supposed to be a casual tow for a parking violation - but it ended in a total loss.
CABALLERO'S END
It was the car that was driven a thousand miles through Mexico and back without the protection of Mexican auto insurance. But the car Christened in Mexico was no match for the daily horror's of LA.
ORIFICE'S WHEELS
Lavished with money in upkeep and repairs, it was the car that was supposed to last, until one day it just simply disappeared.
And currently in development...
CAR FIVE (working title)
The story of a man who had suffered through a lifetime of bad relationships with his vehicles as he seeks a new vehicle.
My car was stolen.
I'm going to kill that MUTHERF----R!!!
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