Ghost In The Car

A few weeks ago my husband rolled his car. (He's OK, he just got banged up and bruised.) Since then, the car has been sitting out by the driveway under a blue tarp. We've barely given it any notice sitting there until Friday morning.

So let me set the scene. It was sometime between 6:00 and 6:30 am. It was pre-coffee. I had just gotten Jade (9 years old) up for school. Everything was normal. She was dragging herself into the kitchen for breakfast, and I was watching the news wishing school had been canceled so I could go back to bed and vowing to set a late start time to our school day next year. You know, a normal Friday morning.

Then the ducks started raising a ruckus. Well one duck really, our Pekin "Goose" tends to get very loud. But not normally before full light. So I look out and see that not only is he running around making all sorts of noise, but the goats are as acting a bit restless. They see me on the back porch and seem to calm down a bit. So I go back in the house thinking it's just spring fever or some such nonsense.

The next thing I know I hear a car horn go off three times. FREAKED ME OUT! I mean we live in the country that was obviously in my front yard. Um-mm, OK. Now what do I do? I looked out the front window and see that the tail lights are lit up on the Rob's car that is under the tarp. Also the door to his pole barn is open.

Now a sane woman would have either made sure all the doors and windows were locked and waited for her brave husband to get home, or she would have called the cops right then and there. I'm not a sane woman. I'm a farmer and a country girl though. So I got my grandpa's old Marlin .22 and my Ruger.

I don't know what I thought I was going to do. I couldn't remember where my husband put the bullets! (We keep them well separated from the guns for safety reasons.) At least I felt intimidating. Whoever might be in that car didn't know that I didn't have bullets. Of course if he knew anything about guns, he'd know I only had a single shot in the gun. But that didn't matter. I had my dog and I could use the gun as a club if needed. (I did mention my lack of sanity, right?)

So I go out and I'm quite literally shaking in my boots. Ruger is looking at me like "It's a car. Seriously, woman." I swear the dog has a look that said that!! So I cautiously walk up to the car, all the while wondering what I'm going to do. I mean I have the dog lead in one hand and the gun in the other. It's not like I have a free hand to lift the tarp. Not sure I want to anyhow.

So what I did was poke the tarp where the drivers side window use to be and said "You better come out of there now!" Nothing. Then suddenly the tail lights went out, the car "jiggled" and the horn went off again. This time it didn't stop. I freaked out and called 911.

A very nice officer showed up about 10 minutes later and told me it was probably and electrical issue and we should take the battery out of the car. Did I mention I hadn't had coffee yet?