So the Season's Changed Your Face

December 2006

“Honestly, I’m fucking sick of it, Sam,” I said heatedly into the phone. “It’s been in my spot for a week and I haven’t seen it move once.”

“You don’t have to tow it,” Sam said, attempting (in vain) to calm me down. “You can leave a passive aggressive note on the windshield. But towing it? Don’t you think that’s a bit extreme?”

“I don’t have to tow it. I want to tow it. That’s the difference,” I smiled. “I hope it gets crushed! Because, you know, it’s a piece of shit anyway!”

Sam sighed heavily. “You’re crazy. You’re actually nuts.”

“I get it from my mom,”

“I don’t mean to insult you, but you’re kind of being a bitch,” Sam said.

I have been living with Sam since my second year at GSU. We just recently decided to get an apartment to get away from campus. I like her. She doesn’t sugar coat things. And she cleans up after herself. She’s a pretty great roommate and friend.

“But they’re in my spot,” I whined. “I’ve had to park somewhere else for the past week and I don’t like it.”

“Well, I pretty sure that the owner of that car isn’t going to like it when they decide they finally need to use it and it’s gone,”

“That’s his problem,” I said stubbornly. “He should have thought about that before he decided to be an asshole.”

“Oh, so you’ve decided it’s a man?”

“Yeah. Only a man would do something like that,”

Sam sighed a second time. “Vivi, you’re being ridiculous.”

“Do you know what’s ridiculous? That car is perfectly in line with our window. You look out the window and there’s the car. That’s why I chose that spot when we moved in. So I can keep an eye on my vehicle. Don’t you think it’s a little bit weird that I haven’t seen that person once?”

“Not everyone is on the same schedule as you, Vivi. You’re on a pretty erratic schedule. Plus, how do you know they don’t live here?”

“They don’t have the little sticker thing that the rest of us have!”

“You checked?” Sam asked, her tone heavy with disbelief. “You checked?!”

“Yeah, I fucking checked! Wanted to make sure I had an actual reason to be mad!”

“If they don’t have a parking sticker, they should have been towed a long time ago. Unless they have a visitor’s pass…”

“They don’t have that either!” I said, pulling back the curtains and examining the car. It was snowing.

“Well, talk to the landlord. He’ll figure it out,” Sam suggested. I could tell she was getting tired of me and my irrational thinking.

“He hasn’t done anything yet!” I complained. “I’ll just do it myself. If you want something done right, you know?”

For the third time, Sam sighed. “I think you’re overreacting. Go take a bath.”

“I’m getting that car towed, Sam,” I said, finality in my voice. “And that’s that. That is my spot and I am reclaiming it.”

“Go on with your crazy self, then. I’ll see you when I get home,” Sam remarked, sounding very defeated.

“Bye,”

Instead of taking a bath as Sam suggested, I hopped on the computer, hacked into someone’s network, and searched for a towing company in my area. It wasn’t difficult and I felt absolutely no guilt dialing that number and explaining my situation to the person who answered the phone.

In fifteen minutes, that fucking sedan will be out of my spot and out of my life.


With my keys in hand, I waited patiently in the snow for the tow truck to come. It had stopped snowing – for now – but it was still incredibly cold. Though I was wearing layers upon layers of winter clothing, a hat, gloves, a hand-knitted scarf, and boots, I was still shivering. Though, I might have been shivering because I was eagerly anticipating the arrival of the tow truck.

As the man promised on the phone, the tow truck was in the lot fifteen minutes later. He was just hooking up the sedan when a person clad in black came out of the apartment complex, talking quite loudly on his phone.

He passed me without any acknowledgement. I looked curiously after him from the curb I inhabited, silently smoking a cigarette, just waiting for that fucking car to be out of my life.

He got closer and closer and closer to the tow truck – and apparently the shitty, silver sedan that was being pulled onto the bed of the tow truck was his shitty, silver sedan.

“Shit, I gotta call you back,” he said hastily into his phone, and shoved it into his back pocket. “Hey, man, what’s going on?” he asked the towing guy, who stopped what he was doing.

“Are you the owner of this car?”

“Yes,”

“Do you live here?”

“No, I’m staying with a friend,”

“Do you have a visitor’s pass or have you informed the landlord of your extended stay?”

“No…”

“That young lady over there-” he pointed at me, “-says that this is her assigned parking spot and that you’ve been parked here for about a week. She has every right to get your car towed, man. Unless you can work something out, I’m going to have to tow your car.”

He sighed. It was cold enough to see his breath in a cloud before him. He approached me, almost at a run. He was wearing a hat and a scarf and a big jacket with the collar up and he was wearing sunglasses because it was still sunny out and therefore, I could hardly see his face, which was pretty off-putting.

“Look, I’m really sorry,” he said. “I did not know there was assigned parking in this lot. If I had known, I definitely would have found another place to park.”

I blew smoke out of my nostrils. “It’s been a real bitch finding a place to park.”

“I’m sorry. Really, I’m sorry,” he repeated. “I’m staying with a friend right now and we’ve been using his car almost exclusively. I’ll be honest with you, this is very inconvenient for me, very inconvenient and I will probably do anything if it means you won’t tow my car. I just – I do not have time to get my car towed right now.”

I crushed my cigarette in the snow and stood. “Let’s talk face to face. I’d feel a little more comfortable if you took off your sunglasses.”

“Right, right, of course,” he said, taking off his sunglasses and stowing them in one of his pockets.

I’ll be honest, I was expecting those bottle green eyes to come out of hiding. I thought I recognized the voice, the gait, the attitude, and the very smell of him.

“Hello, Mike,” I said, wearing a very irritated and very sarcastic smile. “How have you been?”

He surveyed me for a moment. “…Vivi? Jesus, you look so different.”

“Yeah, three years of college will do that do you,” I replied, still wearing that same, sarcastic, you-better-hope-I’m-not-armed smile.

“You’re – you’re the person towing my car? It’s your parking spot I’ve been in?”

“Coincidence is a bitch, isn’t it?”

“Okay, look, I know things sort of went south for us but I would really appreciate it if you could find it within heart to not tow my car,” he said, choosing his words very carefully. “I would really appreciate it if you did not tow my car.”

“I’m sorry, Mike, but you know I can’t do that for you,” I remarked, my voice dangerously sweet. “If you were anyone else, I would be able to find it in my heart to not tow your car, but you know you’ve always been special, Mike.”

“You’re still going to tow my car?” he asked, incredulously. “I will literally do anything, Vivi, to make you not tow my car. Literally anything. You name it, I will do it. I really need my car. You don’t have to do this to me.”

“Mike, there is nothing you could do that would make me change my mind,” I frowned – again, sarcastically – and patted him on the shoulder. “And you’re right. I don’t have to do this. I want to.”

Completely stunned, Mike did not follow me when I walked back to the tow truck and told the man that he could continue what he was doing.

I had to walk past Mike again to get back into the building.

“You’re being such a bitch,” he said to my back. “I don’t understand.”

I turned and smiled. “That’s funny. You’re the second person to tell me that today,” I shrugged. “Oh well.”

“What happened to you?” he asked. “You never used to be like this.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “That’s life. People change, Mike. Of course, you’d know all about that, wouldn’t you?”

We held angry eye contact for a moment. I tore my eyes away just as the guy towing Mike’s car got into the truck. The massive truck roared to life. “Oh, this is the best part!”

And for the second time in his life, Mike’s car was towed away for reasons far beyond his control.