Further Adventures of the Mechanics Wife

    It's a few years after yesterday's story, and I had a different car. This one as a Nissan Stanza, and Hubs had taught me to drive a stick in this car. He was a really good teacher.


    One day, I drove a co-worker home from work; we worked at Jamesway Dept Store. As I sat there, watching to make sure she got inside her apartment OK, I heard, and felt, a minor clunk. With the clunk, the tone of the running engine changed. It had been running at a higher pitched hummm, and it changed to a lower pitched hummm.


     But the car seemed to run OK, and when I got home, I mentioned it to Hubs. Of course, he blew me off. But I persisted. Then one day at work, he got some metal shards embedded in his face. I don't remember what happened, something shattered, I think. His boss, Paul, called me to tell me that Hubs was hurt, and I came right away to take him to the hospital. On the way, he could finally hear that my engine didn't sound right, since his eyes were closed.


   Later that day, as we drove to the pharmacy to get his prescription filled, he told me to go in and get the medicine, he was going to take a look at the engine.


    When I came out, he was sitting in the driver's seat, his hands gripping the wheel so tightly that his knuckles were white. He had a very grim look on his face, and was staring straight ahead as I got in the car. I asked him if we were going home now, and he said no, we are going to the garage. I tried very hard not to be sarcastic, and asked him if he found anything. Without looking at me, he remarked that the noise I had heard was an engine mount breaking, and that the engine was falling out of the car. The difference in the sound was caused by the strain put on the engine as it hung there.


   I was silent as we drove to the garage, but inside I was saying "Nah nah, nah nah nah nah!" And once again, the wife knew something was very wrong, and the Hubs wouldn't listen. These car adventures are actually the second and third ones. When we met, I had a 1970 Pontiac Le Mans. Tomorrow I'll tell you that story!


    P.S. there was no permanent damage to Hubs' face, they got the bigger pieces out, and told him the smaller ones would work themselves to the surface and come out on their own. The worst one was a piece of rust that stuck into his eye. That's why his eyes were closed on the ride to the hospital.