tragedy strikes!*

ilsa, my trusty steed and beloved--nay, best--friend of seven years, in her heyday, looked something like this:

alas, death comes to us all. my beautiful kiwi bullet was dealt a fatal blow a few weeks back, and while she and i both fought valiantly for her life, i was ultimately forced to put her down. the tow hearse hauled her off last thursday, and now i imagine she looks more like this:

oh, cruel world that brought my darling and i together only to break both our hearts! ilsa, while being the best little dodge neon any girl could ever dream of driving, was still a dodge neon, and thus susceptible to the standard array of neon circuitry ailments. as she got on in years, her internal electronics failed one by one--first the lights, and then the stereo, and finally the locks, so that for the final year or so she was about as high-tech as your standard go-cart. i never loved her less, though, and in the last week of her life she remembered what we're all supposed to be doing with our time on this crazy rock: singing at the top of our lungs, just for the sake of the sound. in the last week she rallied, and music poured out of one heroic rear speaker like angelic trumpets calling the blessed home to rest. in my heart, i know she's at peace.

but in my dreams she still races through the winding, wooded back roads of her youth like a wild mare, running faster, faster, the fire in her heart blazing with all the mad heat of an exploding sun. they may take your wheels, little girl, and your engine and your struts and your brand new oil pan, but they'll never take your freedom.





* looking over the titles of my recent posts, one notes an unfortunate preponderance of exclamation points. have i resorted to melodrama? am i simply overcaffeinated? it matters not to me, my friends, but i apologize if the trend has at any point tired and/or startled you, as i adore you all.