Nutty

[krpalmer]

For the past few weeks I’d been noticing a funny sort of rumbling rattle from the back of my car whenever I rounded a turn, as if something was rolling around loose behind me. With not much more in the way of vehicular mechanical skills than noting the built-in “service clock” and taking the car back to the dealer on its regular recommendations, I’m forced to admit to seeming slow to look in the back. At last, though (probably prompted by thoughts of cars seen stranded along the side of the highway), I opened the tailgate, took everything out, and lifted the cover over the little spare tire. I’d been imagining the tools for changing it had come loose; instead, I found a styrofoam tray holding the tools neatly packed and, in an larger storage cubbyhole left empty, a quantity of acorns.

There are no oak trees near me, but being home for Christmas and near the oak trees planted along the family driveway would have provided the acorns. Fortunately, there was no other mess to clean up. When I mentioned this to my family, they said they’d had rodents get into their own cars, at least until they started stashing air fresheners in different places.