It always seemed like everything that happened in my life was different than you expect. Things always turned out great, but never the way I thought they would. When I was in college I talked to my parents about a car. It seemed like I should have one. I was making a little bit of money working for Pizza Hut and my transportation needs were greater than ever before. I am not sure how this happened but one day my Dad tells me to come by the house because he thinks he has found a car that I might like. By the house? Seriously? Was this going to be another junker that he got in a trade for auto repairs. Would I need a new set of jumper cables and some extra tires to put in the trunk? Will it start without popping the clutch or without being pushed. I came by the house. I wasn’t there long and there is a knock on the door. Standing at the door was the guy who had terrorized me and all of my friends when we were in grade school. Jimmy Marlett. He was the same kid that I used to ride to school with when I was eating my morning vitamins. He was the sum total of all things mean and nasty. He was relentless in making life miserable for me and everyone else. There was no way to avoid him. When I went out for the basketball team he was a year older and I hated to be in the locker room after practice because I knew that bad things were going to happen and usually did. He perfected the stinging paper clip. I never knew how that worked…all I know is that it would leave marks when you got stung by the little twisted piece of metal. What a horrible thing and Jimmy was the king of the stinging paper clip. Just for extra fun there was always the rubber band snap which also hurt and left a mark. These were perfect crimes…no one would name names for fear of reprisals later. We were all terrorized equally and no one would break the code and inform on Jimmy. Oh well, that was then and this was now. He is standing at my parent’s front door and he was now a “used car” salesman. Boy did that fit. Apparently, my Dad had gone to Jimmy’s lot and found a car that he thought I would like and had Jimmy bring it over. This was before Carvana or buying a car on the internet. You usually had to face these car people on their turf and deal with that ugly scene. Jimmy had come to my parent’s house with one of the other people who worked at his car lot and who had driven the car in question to the house. Jimmy invited us to check out the car. It was a beautiful black Rambler American. It had a red interior and looked awesome. I think it was the only Rambler model ever made that wasn’t butt ugly. I loved it. The price had already been negotiated by my Dad and almost as quickly as Jimmy had arrived the deal was sealed and I now had this incredible car. Jimmy handled all the paper work. My Dad and Mom were beaming and I was still in a state of shock. It is interesting how small the world really is. I later ran into the person who had previously owned the car and learned that it had been very well cared for which was obvious and that there were no hidden problems. I couldn’t help it I was always suspicious that somehow there were going to be hidden problems because Jimmy was involved. All I know is that my grade school nemesis had delivered a very cool car to me and I guess in the process erased all those years of misery that I endured. You never know what might happen in this life. I don’t know if Jimmy remained in the car-selling business. All I know is that the car he brought me was one of the neatest things that I had ever seen. Talk about mixed emotions. On the one hand, it bothered me that this horrible person would benefit from that purchase but I also was thankful that, as hard as it was to accept, he had found my first car and it was incredible. I had that car for several years and Kathy and I made many trips in that vehicle. We never had any problems with the car…just put gas and oil in it, had it tuned up occasionally and washed it when needed. It served us well. Thank you Jimmy Marlett.
I swear to god, you cannot make this stuff up. I don’t know maybe it was Karma. Maybe the stars had somehow come into alignment at the right time. Things happened for me in my life that honestly made me think that I was like the Golden Child where good things always triumphed over evil. Charmed…I guess that is one way to describe what has happened in my life. The only uncharmed like thing was losing Kathy. There is no way that I think that was for the greater good. I only know that she didn’t have any more pain and for that I am grateful.
