As the snow cleared up, I was trying to give Savannah driving lessons… and Sav behind the wheel was rough to say theleast.
The girl already had her license– which was a wonder– but she still refused to drive. I was trying to get her more accustomed to it while I still could. She just needed someone to push her to practice a bit, and there was no time like the present. In the back of my mind, I was already worrying about next year. Without us, she’dbe struggling to drive Duke to tournaments on her own. I could picture Duke reading printed out Arena Map directions from the shotgun seat and her completely freaking out.
I pulled up to her house and honked the horn early on Sunday morning– this was our prime driving time because we didn’t have to report to the rink until 10am. At that time, she’d have to open up the concession stand, and we’d start our long day of reffing.
She scampered out smiling and holding two cups of hotchocolate.
“Ready?” I asked her as I walked to my shotgunseat.
She handed me the hot chocolate with a bubbly smile. “I added some whipped cream and cinnamon sprinkles this time. See if you like it.”
“Okay,” I chuckled. “But how are you feeling about driving? Ready?”
“Oh, yeah. Um… yeah,” she said nervously and shrunk back a little.
I nodded at her to get to the front seat.
Inside, I had to stifle a laugh at how she had to move my seat to the closest setting it could possibly get to the wheel.
“Alright, now sit up straight and have some confidence. I’m going to direct you where to go as if I’m reading off directions, okay?”
She took a deep breath in and nodded eagerly at me.
“Nope, looking at the road, not me,” I said, making her face break into a smile. “Let’s go, Callahan.”
She eased away from the curb, and we were moving.
The driving lesson was going superbly well, until we entered the Blockbuster parking lot that is…
In the parking lot, I directed her to turn left, but instead of turning left, she made a sharp right without looking and almost crashed us directly into the light pole sitting in the middle of the parking lot.
I slammed my foot on the imaginary break at my feet, and yelled, “Stop! Stop!”
She hit the break right on time.
We both sat there, catching our breath, looking straight up at the lightpole.
“Okay, I’m done now!” she squeaked out in a high-pitched voice and let go of the wheel.
I blew out a breath and rubbed my forehead. “As much as I’d like that, no can do,” I said honestly.
She looked over at me like I was crazy. “Griff, I almost crashed your car. I do not want to drive any longer today.”
“And that is exactly why we have to drive more, ya crazy girl,” I argued. “You can’t avoid it forever,” I told her point blank.
“Yes, I can,” she shot me a sassy smile. “Because you and Nick can chauffeur meeverywhere.”
I was afraid of that answer… because that forced me to bring up the inevitable.
“And what about this coming fall?” I asked her. “Neither of us want you and Duke walking back and forth in the freezing cold after sunset. We’ll worry about you guys. And Nick probably won’t be able to come save you from those tournament drives…”
She looked over at me glumly.
I scrubbed a hand over my face and leaned back. “Okay, we’ve got to address the elephant in the room,” I toldher.
“We are not goin’ there, Griff,” she said through gritted teeth.
“Yes, we are. Stop being stubborn and just spit it out,” I pushed, challenging her with a stare down. “Why do you freak out when you hear left or right?” I asked, hoping I’d get an honest answer so I could actually help her push through it this time.
