Thursday, 27 January 2005
I'll Bet You Houdini Could've Done It Faster
On the way home from work last night, I noticed something. Or rather, the absence of something. Specifically, a car.
This car in particular had the notable achievement of having been parked in the same spot, continuously, for some five or six months. I had been counting, but I lost track around the time I went on Christmas holiday. In any case, it had been there since last summer.
How could have this been? You may well ask. Good question. It had been booted some time last August or September, but I never saw a ticket after that point. One, I think I saw a towing removal sticker, but it disappeared pretty quickly.
To the best I can figure, the car slipped into that chasm of bureaucracy here known as "no one's responsibility." The police (who, incidentally, have a station just block away) never seemed interested in it. (Of course, they rarely seem interested in anything but talking about what they will have for lunch, what they had for lunch, or what shopping they'll do after lunch, when they stroll around in their groups of three or four.) No one seemed particularly ready to tow it, despite the car's rather prominent role in more than a few of the regular traffic jams in this neighborhood of single-lane roads. And apparently, the owner was in no rush to recover it.
And yet, yesterday morning, a change: the boot mostly pried off but still clinging for dear life. Last night, the car - and the boot - were gone. An outline formed by months of accumulated, packed dirt remained on the ground, the only sign of its seemingly endless presence. I have to admit: after seeing the car practically become embedded in the street, it bugs me that I'll never know exactly how it was removed.
The way this car had almost taken root reminds me of the sentimental sequence you find in some films: Time passes, then accelerates. People, days - then whole seasons - come and go. But some atemporal object endures (a statue, or even a person whose daily routine is to sit in the same spot). And then, it's gone.
Except in the case of this car, it felt more like being condemned to watch Andy Warhol's Empire in a never-ending loop. And instead of sentiment, I have more of a feeling of relief.
Goodbye, annoying car.