Meeeeowwww

I am not by nature a very superstitious person. But sometimes when things are going really bad, to get a hold onto something – I can start believing in some stupid things – anything to tide over the bad phase in life I feel. The Mr. does not believe in anything that cannot be scientifically explained. He believes in God and has faith in the fact that if you do well, you will always be taken care of. But what happened on Sunday, make him really smile and think for a second if there was something called superstition which was true.

It was one of those days when I was having a miserable Migraine attack and nothing I did seem to assuage the pain. So, in the evening we decided to go out for a drive for a whiff of fresh air. Just as we were about to leave the apartment complex, a gorgeously black cat ran across the road. I was a bit scared and told that we would better go back. The Mr. consoled me and said a Cat is just another animal – we don’t get scared if a squirrel/beaver/groundhog crosses the road rite? We had driven only for about a mile or so, and were about to get out of a gravel path that was a temporary detour when we heard a metal scrapping noise. I turned and gave a glare to the vehicle behind for making such a bad noise! The Mr. pressed the gas a bit more and the noise persisted – the car behind us was trying to overtake us and glaring at us – and it was then that it dawned on us that it was a problem with our own car!

We pulled over and saw to our dismay that our exhaust cabinet was dangling on the ground. The exhaust is fitted to the body of the vehicle using a metal strip that is fastened on both sides with two screws – one of them had fallen off causing the metal strip to give way and making the exhaust fall almost to the ground. It was our luck that we had taken a AAA membership just 3 weeks ago. AAA is a company that takes care of any such emergency problems with your vehicle for a yearly premium – people say that it is one of the most beneficial things in the US. We called them up and within 10 minutes the tow truck was there. The ‘tow-er’ was a Mexican called Eddy – a very cheerful guy – he looked at the exhaust and said he can fix it temporary for us and that would be helpful to us, instead of just being towed and dropped at home AS-IS. There was however just one issue that we had to go with him to another place where he had got a call about a broke down Mercedes. Well, what did we have to lose? So, he towed our car up – this was the first time I was seeing a car being towed – Boy! Are these machinery sophisticated!! We sat in the front of that huge monster truck while our darling car rode in the back. (I was thinking – if our car could speak like the ones in the animated movie “CARS”, it would squeak and say – please don’t let me go, I won’t break down anymore).

We drove to a sub-division that had really HUGE houses! Guess all the trillionairies (if there is one such word) lived here. Each house had atleast 3 cars and no brand lesser than a Cadillac / Benz / Lexus. Eddy even remembered this house as soon as he heard the complaint and remarked that they even had a boat-car (I had read about these only in Fantasy comics) and here I was seeing one. Now, this Benz car also had to be towed to the garage – so he hooked it to the back (like cars are towed back in good old India) and there we were driving off with 2 cars. Eddy remarked, as he hit 50 Mph – that must be the fastest either of those cars drove without gas! Enroute we collected some nice info – Eddy got a call and apologized saying it was his voice , when my Mr. joked “is she asking you when you are home” – to which the Mexican replied pretty casually – “No we are getting divorced! It was a bad choice – we rushed into marriage. But that’s fine we have been married only for 6 months now”. I found it so strange – here was a guy who was getting divorced, there was no single feeling of remorse about him and he was talking very lovingly to his soon-to-be-ex-wife. Poof! This kind of attitude is just too much for me to handle. I got reminded of “Jhankar Beats” where Rahul bose’s lawyer says “Mujhe mere client ke biscuits wapas chahiye” , instead of asking for “Tapes” (hilarious scene).

Finally 2 hours later, after Eddy had temporarily fixed our exhaust fastening, we crossed the same corner were the “black cat” effect had attacked us. For a long time after we came home, the Mr. could not help smiling about the “Black Cat”.