I was in a rush to pick up Rowan from his day program and as fate would have it while stopped at a red light a cruiser stopped behind me. I was nervous knowing I had no valid registration and no insurance. I had been driving like that for more than a month. I had the money to buy the car but not enough to register or insure it. I was driving around with the plates from the car I had recently totaled. The light turned green and I started to go, as soon as I got through the intersection, the blue lights were flashing in my back window. I pulled over, trying to find a plausible excuse why I was driving that way.
It seemed like forever before the officer came to my driver side window. I gave him my “Ok tell me what I did” face and waited. The usual, license and registration. I handed him my license and the signed title to my car along with the paperwork I had gotten from the dealer. He took them and went back to his cruiser while his partner stayed near my passenger window. I picked up my phone to call Rowans day program but my phone battery died just as I dialed the number. Just great, I didn’t have a charger, I was late and my phone was dead. Things got worse when he came back to the car. I was asked to step outside the vehicle and go to the side of the road. I did as I was told and waited. I was mortified, all the cars going by looking at me on the side of the road flanked by three police officers and a dead phone. I wanted to cry. My breathing came in short bursts and I just wanted to sink into the grass.
After looking over the papers in his hands he started asking me questions. When I bought the car, where I found those plates, why were they held on with duct tape? I had duct tape on them because the screws didn’t hold and I was warned by another police officer that I needed to fix them. He kept up the questions, not happy with the responses I was giving him. He shook his head and told me that he couldn’t let me drive the car and he was going to have to tow it. He told me to find a ride. I had no one, not a single person I could call to help. Best I could do was get an Uber but my stupid phone was dead. Frustrated I asked the officer standing next to me if he had a phone I could use. He said no, that they couldn’t help me. I explained I needed to call an Uber so I could get to my son. The day program had closed, it was a half hour after pickup time. Almost in tears I babbled to him that my phone was dead and the rest of the sad story. He took pity on me and told me he could bring me to Rowan. Relieved I got in his cruiser. When we arrived, of course, everyone was at the window watching me get out of the back seat of a police cruiser.
Running in the staff told me not to worry about the time. I asked if any of them had a charger and no one did. There were ten staff there and not one of them had an iPhone charger. I needed to call an Uber and I couldn’t use anyone else’s phone, the account info was stored in my phone. Eventually one of the returning bus drivers lent me a charger and after what seemed like hours my phone charged enough to get an Uber home.
That little adventure cost me a fortune in Ubers and an ever bigger fortune for the towing and storage cost at the garage. Life was costing me way more money than I was making and little did I know that was the beginning of the end of my WTF year.
Unsupervised, unregistered, and somehow still standing,
K.
I'm Still Here. Somehow... 