A Vignette

It was still pretty chilly that night, but evidently the elderly lady didn't care: it was April and winter had been officially 'over' for three weeks and dammit, she just didn't care. She was going out with the top down. So out she went, into the garage, to pull the cover off her beloved powder-blue convertible Volkswagen Beetle. Then she suited up in her jogging suit of large, splotchy purple and pink flowers, threw a scarf around her neck, and back the car out of the garage.

It was late afternoon, and the shadows were long. The day was still bright, though, because in this neck of the woods, in mid-April the trees have still not quite begun to leaf out, so those long shadows are narrow and spindly. It's the time of year when the sun is bright and warm as long as the wind isn't blowing too hard, and when it's still quite brisk and cold when you're in the shade. It's the time of year when people who own convertibles and motorcycles get them out and endure the chill, just because they want the wind in their hair.

That's what this lady wanted: the wind in her hair, even though her hair was short and gray and styled to within an inch of its life. She was going out in her convertible, dammit! And that's just what she did. She backed out of her garage, a bit jerky at first, and then she sat at the very end of her driveway, looking this way and that and this and that and this again, waiting for the perfect moment. Finally, after waiting for a guy out for a walk to scoot past her car (and he looked like he wasn't entirely sure he trusted her not to gun the gas as soon as he was directly behind her), she backed out into the road, turned, and sped down the road.

She had to feel liberated and free! There's something especially wondrous in that first taste of spring wind and that first feel or spring sun upon your face. But it's still...cold. The feeling of freedom is fleeting, replaced quickly by the fact that you're still freezing.

So she came back five minutes later, parked her beloved Beetle with the top back up, and went back inside to make some tea. Still, summer's coming.