my truest girl

by D.O.

I had twenty minutes between the time I clocked out at work and the time Avatar’s movie reel started to roll at Northpark Mall’s AMC, a drive that could take anywhere from 9 to 39 minutes, depending on traffic. The odds were stacked against me this particular Thursday night as it had been raining cats and dogs for the entirety of my six-hour work shift, and didn’t relent upon my punching out.

Minutes 10 to 13 after clocking out were spent standing on the side of LBJ talking to the man whose car I’d just rear-ended when Skylar (pictured above in front of Save-Way) temporarily found herself at the bottom of a never-before-seen lake that the Lord (in)conveniently placed in the middle of the highway.

As both minute 13 and my conversation with the maroon sedan’s driver came to a close, I got back in Skylar simultaneously thankful for the grace I’d just been shown by my new friend, and perplexed at how long he seemed to be willing to stand out in the rain to talk about how he didn’t care to exchange information.

By the time I’d merged onto southbound 75 my mind was reeling with thoughts of how great Skylar’s been to me over the years. From the day we picked her up from the local used car dealer as a replacement for Roweena, she’s been as true as any girl I’ve ever known (something Roweena couldn’t boast if she tried). A few highlights of my trip down (no pun intended) memory lane:

  • The first accident: SamB and I were driving to our high school one night for some something, and while I swore against it at the time, I must have run a red light for that lady to have slammed into my driver’s side door with the authority she did. Not an overly happy memory, but significant nonetheless.
  • Blue lights: I’ve done an excellent job keeping this under wraps since they broke, but there was a season in which Skylar had blue neon lights on her belly. Remnants of them may or may not still be down there…
  • Florida: Sky went to Florida once without me. The Roommates who took her managed to return without a single photo of Sky on the beach.
  • Dents: You’d be hard-pressed to look at Skylar from any angle and not see a scratch or dent of some kind. Oddly enough, I have no idea where most of them come from (namely the one-giant-dent-turned-many-smaller-dents on her roof…), but they’re endearing.
  • Speeding & Tickets: Sky and I have gotten a ticket for going 7 over and have remained unscathed going 35+ over. So in that regard we’re both awesome and remarkably unlucky.

So thanks Skylar, for being worthy of the title “my truest girl.” You’ve deserved a blogpost of your for many years now. Now you have it. Hope you like it.

I love you.