Month: July 2015

#60 Detroit Rock City

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#60 Write a short story that is set in Detroit in 1956, in which a car floor mat plays a crucial role.

Mike walked out of the court house with a smile on his face. After seven grueling tries to get his drivers license (including the incident that landed him on the front page of the Minneapolis Star after mistaking the gas for the brake and taking a detour into Lake Calhoun) Mike finally had the piece of paper that showed he was a legal driver. This called for a celebration! His first stop was at his best friend Steve’s house.

Walking into the Smith’s kitchen, Mike spotted Steve’s mom putting the finishing touches on a cake that said in fancy icing “Eighth Times the Charm.” Mike picked Steve’s mom in a bear hug and told her that he had passed the test and it had only taken him seven tries. Mrs. Smith started laughing and said, “I never thought I’d live to see the day. Wait until Steve hears about this.” Steve picked this minute to walk into the kitchen and see his mother’s emotional outburst. “Mike, grab a slice of cake and lets go break this license in!”

As Steve and Mike were driving around Minneapolis they started to talk about the big concert that was coming to town that weekend. Elvis. This goofy guy with a goofy hairstyle and even goofier dance moves had practically hypnotized all the girls at school. “I just don’t get what these girls see. His songs are pretty decent but they all act like they want to marry him.” Mike posed as they drove into the drive in to see their first movie of the spring. “I know that all the tickets are sold out for this show but my cousin in Detroit says that there are plenty of tickets for the show next Friday. Steve started laughing, “There is no way our parents are going to let us go to Detroit to see Elvis.” Mike had to agree, the thought of his parents letting him drive all the way to Michigan to see Elvis seemed far fetched. As they sat watching the movie Mike and Steve thought of excuses for going to Detroit. “Maybe we could tell them that we want to go to a Tigers game.” “Steve, they will never believe that a biggest Twins fan in the world would want to waste the time and money to see a Twins game. Besides, aren’t you saving up to go to Gustavus in the fall.” Suddenly a lightbulb went off in Steve’s mind he had the prefect plan to go to Detroit.
Four days later, Steve and Mike were in a car headed to Detroit. Steve had been right, he had the perfect plan for a parent endorsed trip to Detroit. Steve and Mike were both planning to attend Gustavus the next year. Gustavus, a lutheran school. This was fine news for Steve’s parents who were Lutheran but Mike’s parents were less than enthused worrying about wha the other members at the Church of St. Joseph would think about their only child attending a Lutheran school. Steve had decided that there must be a Catholic College in Detroit. After doing their research they decided that the Sacred Heart Major Seminary would be perfect. They scheduled a tour and got a very enthusiastic blessing from Mike’s parents.

As they drove around Detroit, Steve and Mike were very impressed with the big city. It seemed bigger than Minneapolis and St. Paul but they decided that this might just because everything in the city was new to them. They easily found the seminary and did the tour, looked at the dorms and sat down to lunch in cafeteria. Sitting at the table they separated their money into piles. A pile each for gas, food and lodging on the way home. It’s nice out we can camp at the side of the road. This is the money we can use for the tickets.

Steve and Mike went to the concert, had a great time and had to admit the girls were on to something. This Elvis was the real deal. Walking to the car after the concert they met with the sight of glass simmering in the street. The driver’s side window was smashed to pieces and all of their luggage, and even the peanut butter sandwiches they had snuck out of the cafeteria was gone. The only thing left in the car was the rock the person had used to break the windshield. Mike was terrified of what his parents would say. They wouldn’t believe that a seminary was in the part of town where your car got broken in to. Mike wrapped his jacket around his hand and started to brush the broken glass off the car seat. Steve just stood there looking pale. “Steve, wake up. did the body snatchers get you.” “Mike, you are gonna be really mad.”

Steve explained that he didn’t want his money getting stolen during the concert so he had hidden their money in his suitcase. His suitcase that was now gone. In their desperation to at least find enough gas money to get out of Detroit they started to search every inch of the car, there had to be a few coins wedged in the seat or hidden in the glove box. There search was fruitless except for the stick of juicy fruit gum they had ripped in half to share the wrapper fluttering to the floor. As Mike bent to pick up the wrapper he saw something sticking out under the floor mat. It was a note from written on an envelope that said “Mike, I love that you were nice enough to hide your trip to see Elvis with the hope of you going to the seminary. Your father and I have always loved a good joke.” Inside the envelope were two crisp 10 dollar bills. Mike had no idea how he would ever make this up to his mother. Well, short of going to the seminary to be a priest.

#57, # 58, #59 The Good, The Bad and The Thunderboomers.

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#57 The moment you knew you were no longer a child.

There are a lot of days when I still feel like a child. My friend Shawn and I joke (well, half joke/half truth) that we are terrible at being adults. It is pretty difficult to pinpoint the exact moment when I was no longer a child but a time that stands out in my mind is when I stopped sleeping in my parents rooms during thunderstorms. Let me explain. I grew up in the last years of the cold war. Every night when I went to sleep I prayed that there wouldn’t be a nuclear war that would destroy the Earth. I also grew up in a time when little kids were told about the end times in Sunday school so when there was a lightening storm I was pretty much convinced that it was the end of the world. I decided that if the world was going to end, I would meet the end snuggled between my parents in their bed. So, whenever there were “thunderboomers” I would crawl into bed with my mom and dad. This was easy in the early days of my childhood but as the Bakke family grew, the space in my parents bed shrank. When there wasn’t room in their bed I started bringing a pillow and a blanket and sleeping on the floor until the fateful night there wasn’t any room on the floor! So, I did what any normal kid would do, I slept in the doorway with half my body in my parents bedroom and half my body sticking out in the living room. Laying in the doorway, having to move when anyone had to get up to use the bathroom, I decided that the world was’t going to end with a measly thunderstorm and if there was a nuclear war being in my parents bed wasn’t going to save me and wouldn’t we all meet up again in Heaven? So, I started staying in my own bed, covering my heard with a pillow and blanket because EVERYONE knows that is the true protection from all of the evils of the world.

#58 The worst thing that could happen.

If I had a nickel for every time I have been asked or have asked this question I would be a millionaire. When you ask a student what is the worst thing that could happen they usually say, “Zombie Apocalypse!” When people ask me this it is usually to do with something at school so I’ll say, “get fired,” and getting fired isn’t the end of the world. Honestly, the worst thing that could ever happen would be something terrible happening to the people I love. Life is short and life is precious. I would hate for anything to happen that would cut short the life of anyone I hold precious.

#59 The best thing that could happen.

There are so many little things and big things that would make my day or make me incredibly happy. Waking up in a lakeside cottage, next to an incredible husband to find all my student loans paid off would be a terrific start but probably a tad bit selfish. I would love to live in a world where we wouldn’t have to have statements that “Black Lives Matter,” because all lives would matter. A world where people would think before they spoke, considered the feelings of others more and truly treated others the way they would want to be treated. But sometimes the best things that can happen are the little things that can remind you that we all have a place in this world, looking up into the sky seeing the stars and thinking about people who are far away and knowing that they see the same sky and hoping that they have the chance to look at the stars too.