A Common Cur is Shown More Courtesy

Wednesday, Hick and I took my favorite gambling aunt to our new favorite casino. We all lost, but that was kind of expected. We DID enjoy a splendid lupper (lunch/supper, eaten at 4:00 p.m.) at the casino buffet. And Hick and Auntie made a shopping stop at Goodwill.

Hick was looking for anything that looked resalable for a profit at his Storage Unit Store, and Auntie was looking for bowls. Not for eating out of. For her cats to eat or drink from. She didn't find any. Hick got a whiskey decanter, and two Avon bottles, one that was a Stanley Steamer car, and the other a horn that looked like it was for a black powder rifle. I'm guessing they once held cologne, not perfume. Not the whiskey decanter, of course. Hick paid under $3 for all of it, and thinks he can get $10. It's all about having variety to keep people coming back. They'll eventually buy something.

But that's not the point of this story, because it's NOT ABOUT ME!

I didn't wish to accompany them while they meandered the aisles of Goodwill. So, as I always do when it's just me and Hick, I chose to sit in the car. Usually, I have a book with me, but since Auntie was our guest, I figured that would be rude, so I didn't take one. I figured I could just listen to the radio. Val figures, Hick laughs.

Let the record show that Auntie is probably not quite 5 feet tall on her tiptoes. And A-Cad, unlike T-Hoe, does not have running boards. Auntie was pretty sure she could get into A-Cad, saying she only has trouble (two knee and two hip replacements) getting in and out of low cars. Still, I'd asked Hick if he had a step to take along. Of course he did! A wonderful little step, with an oval handhole in the middle, and non-skid surface. He'd found it in one of his storage units. It reminded me of what a train attendant might use to assist people getting on and off a train.

Anyhoo...once Hick parked at Goodwill, he went around to get the stepstool out of the back. Auntie said she was fine getting out, and she'd just slide down. Hick said, "Okay, we'll use it when we get back." And he LEFT THE STEP beside A-Cad while they walked toward the store.

At that instant, I realized that he was LEAVING, and that he had not left the key in the ignition as usual, with the car running. I hollered at him. LOUDLY. But he kept walking, chatting with Auntie. So I was left in a car with all windows rolled up, no radio, and a nifty little stepstool beside the driver's side passenger door.

You know the kind of people who shop at Goodwill, right? People looking for bargains. And what better bargain than a nifty stepstool for FREE? I was more nervous than a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. More jumpy than a kid all hopped up on Mountain Dew trying to play Whack-A-Mole. I was constantly turning my head, watching people enter and leave the store, cars driving by, people getting out of vehicles, making sure they were not coming by to snag that nifty stepstool.

Oh, yeah. It was pretty hot, because we stopped there on the way to the casino, and it was around 2:00, and pretty hot. Did I mention it was pretty hot? Especially inside a car with the windows rolled up. I'm sure, had I been a baby in a carseat, or a dog hopping from window to window, people would have called the police to rescue me. But since I was just an old lady sitting in the shotgun seat, now and then laying my head back with my eyes closed...nobody gave a hoot.

When the culprits returned, Auntie DID agree with me that a stepstool is a terrible thing to leave unattended, and said she had also raised that question with Hick. But she agreed with HIM that they figured I was smart enough to open up a door if I got too hot. Because, you know, of all the cool air that would flow into a single door on an Acadia, off the blacktop parking lot.

They're welcome for me guarding the stepstool. Even though they didn't thank me.