Monster in the Car

I was home from college for the weekend; that night I drove to Davisboro reluctantly, to pick up my date, Sandra, a Senior in high school. I dreaded this obligatory date. My college classmate Jerry, a Navy veteran, was married to Sandra’s older sister, Janice; I knew Janice from my high school years, a beautiful girl; In college, Jerry and I had become good friends; we studied together for hours in their tiny apartment near the campus.  He had successfully fostered me through English Composition102, and made sure I also kept up in my other courses. Finally, he and Janice had succeeded in setting up this date with Sandra and me. When she came to the door,  I was astonished! Sandra was a vision! Not that plain, awkward ninth grader I remembered from my senior year in high school! I eagerly helped her into my non-air-conditioned 1951 Chevrolet —and we were off to the movie.

On the way to the theater I began feeling quite glad I had agreed to this date with Sandra. We even held hands during the movie. Afterwards, we went to the Bo Jo Drive-in for milkshakes, chatting like magpies. Sandra was so unlike what I had expected. I enjoyed taking the long way back to Davisboro, cruising along the two-lane highway; the windows were open, allowing not only a breeze, but also the delicious aroma from the peach orchards filling the summer air. I pushed open my corner window to draw in more cool night air—then it happened! Something bounced against my knee from my open window. It fell rattling around on the floorboard. I was terrified, and stomped it with my foot. I heard the crushing sounds under my foot; still it seemed to be moving. I stomped a couple of times more and all fell silent. I couldn’t see what had come inside. The car had no inside light and I didn’t have a flashlight. My mind raced; what was lying under my foot? It must have been dead, for all was silent. I left Sandra at her home and drove guardedly, to my house, angry that some creature had invaded what was becoming an unexpectedly pleasant date.

The next morning I went outside for sunlight to expose on the car floorboard my kill; wondering what had tried to attack me?  There it lay, in pieces, crushed to its horrible death on the floorboard——my Polaroid Sunglasses!The sudden gust of wind from that little vent-window had swiftly swished them off their perch onto my knee. In the suddenness, the noise, not to mention my need to appear Macho in front of Sandra, I managed to conjure up all manner of fears (not to mention ruining the evening!)

William Golden’s book, Lord of the Flies, describes the haunting fear of the unknown. A surviving group of boys was being flown out of wartime England in order to save them. The airplane crashed on a deserted island with no survivors but the boys. They struggled to organize in order to survive. A great fear grew in them from the apparent “Monster” they saw far across the bay; it’s chest  rhythmically billowed mightily. For a long time, they avoided the Monster fearfully. .  One day, through a strange coincidence, they were approaching the Monster from a new direction; From this new perspective, they found it; the rhythmic billowing was caused by wind blowing the pilot’s parachute hanging from a tree limb on the cliff; the dead pilot’s bones spread on the rocks below.

Fear of the unknown can nearly drive a person mad. Sometimes it succeeds. The absence of substantial facts can dramatically skew an outcome . Jumping to conclusions without substantial facts happens too often. The story is told of the Duke of Wellington and Napoleon at Waterloo, in Belgium; communication was painfully slow using only visual signals. In reporting the victory the words began etching out the message …… “W-e-l-l-i-n-g-t-o-n….. d-e-f-e-a-t-e-d ….” Instantly news went out that Wellington had been defeated.  It was only until the complete message came —“Wellington defeated Napoleon” that true victory was celebrated”

Accurate facts that undergird truth are dramatically clarifying! Jesus said, “… you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”(John 8:32 ) Y’all may not be old enough to remember the famous remark attributed to Jack Webb; “The facts!. Just the facts, M’am!” (Apologies to Dragnet). And now, who knows how things might have turned out for me, that summer night,…if I could have known for sure what had fallen into the car!?