It’s the Little Things

Today, I attended my beloved aunt’s going home service, the fourth of such a service since February. Before this year, I’ve maybe been to four funerals in my life. It’s been that kind of a 2016.

My flight from Long Beach to Oakland put me in a funk, a reminder of the last time I flew the same route in January to visit my mom when, because of her condition, my dad and I moved her from home to a nursing facility. It would be her last time at our house.

Oakland to Stockton is about an hour drive, so I’d need a rental car, just like I’d needed back in January. I’d already anticipated a weepy commute, ready to pull up the latest Dear Sugar episode on my phone, plug it in to the car’s USB connection, and drift.

The Avis attendant checked me in with a smile, asked me what I was in town for. I tried to make “funeral” sound light but it can’t. The reality of such of a word drops heavy on the hearer. Right away, he offered condolences, and did his best to segue into another subject. Once I’d paid, he directed me to space K-28.

I’d requested the budget sedan. I always do. I’m cheap like that. Looking down the K aisle, I wondered which one would be mine. The blue Forte. The off-white Cruz. The white-white Fiesta. But in space 28, there was a…

Kia Soul! A red Kia Soul. Perhaps it was the model name. Maybe the car’s cute boxiness did it. Certainly, the red helped. Whatever it was, the car in space 28 made me do a happy dance. The tears when I got in were happy tears. I don’t know if the attendant gave me the car on purpose, or if it was the one reserved for me, but it perked me right up. During such a challenging time and year, such bite-sized bits of thrill do much to keep joy and peace inside this gal.