Normally I post every other week, but I asked Marty if I
could do a sequel to last week’s “The magic of Molly”. This just couldn’t wait.
Let’s start with a dog named Dudley. He arrived in our
household twenty years ago when his owner was no longer able to care for him. I
thought the boys might like to have a pet.
It didn’t take long to realize that this just wasn’t going to work. Great dog.
Wrong household. One day I heard
that our neighbours’ Bart the Wonder Dog had been hit by a car on the highway
and they were devastated. I picked up
the phone that very day and said to them, “this could be the most insensitive
phone call you’ve ever received, or the most well timed, but I have a dog that
desperately needs a better home. They arrived 10 minutes later and for years
afterwards were grateful that I had offered Dudley to them.
Next stop on our timeline… 6 months ago. I had already begun
to formulate a vision of my dream wheels – a turquoise, convertible Mini – and
wondered if there even existed such a car.
I walked down to a local restaurant for our weekly business association
meeting, and there, out front, was a Mini.
A turquoise, convertible, 6-speed Mini! I was stunned. I took the picture because I wanted to have it on my phone and put it
on my vision board. When I walked inside the restaurant, I looked around to see
if I could match the car with the owner.
The only person I knew was Dudley’s “dad” from way back when, but I
didn’t get a chance to talk to him as I had to chair the business meeting. When
we were finished, I looked around to see if he was still there, but he had
left. And I didn’t even know if the Mini
was his.
In the meantime, the search for my Mini intensified. I contacted the dealerships around town, and
some of them told me it would be like finding a needle in a haystack. Others
said that colour didn’t exist. I sent
them my picture. They said perhaps it
was custom ordered. One of them even suggested that red Minis were all the
rage. I promptly wrote back and told
them that they clearly didn’t know me and my level of determination to find my dream car.
Roll forward to two nights ago when I was singing at Hugo’s
Restaurant – a now-weekly gig that keeps me off the streets. Who walks in but
Dudley’s “dad”. There I was, up on
stage, supposedly paying attention to the song I was singing, but in between
verses, I craned my neck to look out in the parking lot to see if there was a
Mini out there. There wasn’t. I was undeterred. After my set, I went over to him and we got
caught up. We probably hadn’t spoken in
ten years. I decided to go for it and
ask if he drove a turquoise Mini. He said
he did, just not that night! I showed him the picture on my phone, and he said
that was his exact car. So at this point, having nothing to lose, I asked him
if he would sell it to me. And without batting an eyelash he said, “of
course”. Like it was a no-brainer for
him. Like it was obvious to him that it
needed to be mine. To say I was
gobsmacked is a complete and utter understatement. I stammered that I didn’t have the money yet,
but that I only needed to get it before my birthday in June. He said that was no problem, he needed to
keep it for a couple of months anyway. When
I asked him why he would sell it, he said his new partner doesn’t drive a
manual transmission so he has to get a new car. We settled on a price (I
already knew what it was worth) and shook and then hugged. And then I had to. I did a happy dance right in the middle of
the restaurant floor.
Lots of laughs and “holy cows” from my friends who were
there. They knew I’d found my Molly.
Now I just have to find the moolah. No problem.
The hard part is over.
Branded by determination,
Buns
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