Sat in the car waiting for someone
No one particularly likes waiting around in a car, especially if it's going to be a long time. If you and your roommate are parked at the supermarket, but you don't want to go in, or if you're with someone who needs to drop something off at a friend's house before you go somewhere else, but you know they're going to end up talking for ages – you have the perfect solution.
Reading in the car is not an exciting prospect. Reading is a way to pass the time, and everyone knows that time passes quicker when you're reading. You pull your book out of the bag at your feet as your friend says the classic line – 'I won't be long'.
You nod, sure, and open the book, leaning back in your chair. Maybe, after five minutes, you tilt the chair back a little, so you're more comfortable. After ten minutes, you tilt it back a little more and put your feet up on the dash, crossing your legs.
You turn a page, and see a new chapter. A new chapter is when you come up for breath, where you have a look out the window to see if anything has changed. Someone catches your eye and you awkwardly give them a little wave, before sinking lower in your seat. No sign of your friend, you might as well start the next chapter.
Another chapter ends, and you look around again, checking the time. Won't be long, they said. It's been forty minutes already. You look around, and look back down at your book. They could be back at any moment now. You flick through the pages, to see how long the next chapter is. It's not too long, it's shorter than most of the previous ones.
You take the risk, and keep reading. You've barely turned one page when the car door opens and your friend apologises for being so long.
This is where things change a little. There are two endings, depending on whether you started at the supermarket, or outside someone's house.
If you were at the supermarket, you have a little more time to finish the chapter as your friend puts the bags of shopping in the car. You speed-read as they push the shopping trolley back – you are not leaving until you've finished the chapter. Depending on the chapter, maybe you finish it, maybe you have a few more lines to read when your friend turns the car on, but you finish it, and can close the book in satisfaction, sliding it back into your bag.
If you started outside someone's house, well... things run a little differently. Your friend gets into the car, apologising for how long they were, but you still have a couple of pages. They start talking to you (how rude) as they plug in their seatbelt. You hold up a finger for them to wait and they fall silent, waiting for you to drop the finger. They ask if they can start driving and you shake your head. You don't let them turn the car on until the book is closed, the chapter finished.
Either way, you inevitably forget to put your seat back up properly, and spend the rest of the journey feeling that something is wrong, but not quite sure what it is.
And done!
I'm not sure how many more of these there are going to be, but I would quite like to get it to at least 10, because I like nice, round numbers. That means we have two more, at least.
I wouldn't recommend putting your feet up on the dashboard unless it is your car, you do not have shoes on, and/or you have permission from the owner, but let's admit it, we've all done it once or twice.
Okay, that's it.
Bye!
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