Eva’s twenty-four hours of hell that turned into a really cool Big Lebowski moment

By Eva Marie Heater

          I was tired. I’d had a hell of a day. I dropped my wallet at the grocery check-out, and didn’t realize it until I got home. My cell phone rang, and a very nice police officer said that someone had turned it in to him, and to please come pick it up. Relieved, I rushed back there, and he asked me if I had any cash in there. I replied that I had, like, forty dollars, man. He said that it wasn’t in there. I checked and found that no one had taken any of my credit cards, driver’s license, or Yale ID (getting one of those replaced is FAR worse than going to any DMV), relayed that good news to the officer, and went home and took a bath; thankfully, no marmots were involved.

          The next day I had walked to work, but decided that I wanted to go somewhere right after, so I walked home in the afternoon and got my car and parked it downtown. After work I went over to my car, only to find that it had been booted by the police, because the city claimed that I hadn’t paid my car tax for the year. I had paid my taxes, but the tax office was closed by this time, so in order to get my car un-booted, I had to come up with A LOT of money for the towing company. This will not stand, man!

          I called my boyfriend and had him come pick me up, and we went and got the amount of money that was asked for on the ransom note left by the city. We found the towing place that put the boot on for the city, and they informed me that the city had called them and added more money to the amount owed, for no apparent reason. So we went to the grocery store, got a check cashed (using my Ralph’s card, of course), and went back to the towing place, where a line of people with the same issue had congregated.

          I waited patiently in line, paid the outrageous fee, and got a receipt. My boyfriend pulled out into the road, to take me to go wait by the car for the towing people to remove the boot, and at that point the most wonderful thing happened. The Eagles song Peaceful Easy Feeling was playing on the radio!!! We looked at each other and just started laughing. I’m just glad he didn’t throw me out of the car. And my Credence tapes were there.

It was one of those perfect moments.

©2014 by Eva M. Heater