He's There

I’ve rented from the Budget Rent a Car near IBM before.  I rented from here last year.  Or was it just last winter?  There’s a middle-aged guy behind the desk, who isn’t very glad to be there.  He’s fine as long as everyone does what he or she are supposed to.  I show up vaguely hoping he won’t be there.  He’s there.  I explain that I signed up for a car on line and I’m here to pick it up.  “When did you do that?”  He asks.  “An hour ago” I reply.  Ahh, but this was incorrect.  The system won’t pick me up and wouldn’t have notified this location in time.  All availability is subject to circumstances at the actual pick up location.  “Right.  So, uh, do you have any cars?”  “Yes. Miranda will show you one outside.” 

I wonder about this location.  It’s right next to the IBM plant.  That’s a good place to stick a rental car.  Except that this IBM plant laid off about thirty thousand people twenty years ago.  There can’t be more than a few thousand-people left, if that.  I’d be worried, I suppose, if I was an employee at an epiphyte business dependent on a slowly deteriorating host plant like this.

Once upon a time my old high school The Oakwood School, owned all this land.  They had the title from up upon the hill all the way down to the water front.  In the late eighteenth century it must have been splendid.  Now the view is marred by the scar of Route 9 and all the endlessly changing businesses that rise and fall along its’ shoulder.  I’ve never been but I suppose the IBM folks that are left there have a nice view.  

My car is a red SUV. A Ford.  I hadn’t wanted an SUV, but that is what’s available.  We check.  There are no scratches.  I consider how to tune the radio and turn on the windshield wiper.  “Which side is the gas tank on?”  Now I’m way up high and I can look down at this person and that person beside me when I drive.  I head up to the Starbucks to get the day’s first espresso I’ve been waiting for. 

Monday, 07/17/18