By Eric Malcolm

            I was called about eleven a.m. that morning, and my girlfriend was crying on the other end of the phone.  My cousin slept on my couch, sleeping off his hangover.  On the phone, between sobs, she told me she had another fight with her mom, and she wanted me to rescue her.  Lately, I’d rescued her quite a bit.  Rescuing her meant basically coming and picking her up on occasions when she fought with her family, and letting her relax with me at some undisclosed location for a while.  I woke Donny, and told him the present situation.  We arrived at her house ten minutes later, Donny’s head pounding, and my rear tire a bit low.  We obviously couldn’t stay at her house (which would negate the whole purpose of rescuing her), so we set out for Donny’s house, because I figured that a leisurely swim in his pool was what we all needed to mellow out and put things in perspective.  We only made it half way before my two passengers assuaged me to pull into an empty church parking lot to check my low tire.  As I bent over, changing my tire, sweat started trickling down my face, and the day’s true heat intensity began to reveal itself.

            My spare was even lower then the original, and as I sat on the blacktop contemplating this predicament, she told me she was moving out of state to live with her father.  This became a common remark over the next few months, but it really bothered me, because I loved her, and hated to think of her leaving because of indifferences with her mother.  Donny realized this choice moment, and added to the situation that he left his door key back at my house.  The summer heat swelled, and my head raced seemingly from the heat.

            We drove back to my house on the spare, and my car seemed to jerk even more after the change of tires.  He got his key, and we departed.  I drove the car with it’s awkward handling, listening to my two passengers discussing the idea of me putting my original tire back on the car, while I thought about that too, and about swimming in Donny’s pool, but mostly thinking about eventually having to deal with my girlfriend leaving, knowing that the situation at home was never getting any better.  I stopped at Dairy Queen, and changed my tire once again, while my autistic cousin and antsy girlfriend sat in my car eating ice cream.

            Once again on the road, finally heading towards my original destination that morning, Donny’s big welcoming swimming pool of relief, which seemed to make you forget how oppressively hot the weather was, I wiped the sweat from my face in anticipation.  I eventually found myself making love to my girlfriend in the pool, (which was abruptly ended when my cousin came outside with his underwater goggles and curiosity), and even though we were both offended by his imposing nature, we had to express amusement at the situation, and the events experienced this typical summer day in Ohio.

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