Panne d'essence

 Panne d’essence 

It didn’t take Dave long to discover that we were merely out of gas. How we had managed to ignore the numerous warning signals, however, he wouldn’t venture to say.

     He spoke to us in Jamaican-tinged English as he emptied the gas can he had attached to the side of his truck into our tank, then said, “Try startin' it. Wouldn’t hurt to pump the gas-pedal a couple of times first.

     “That should do it,” he said when the engine turned over.

Uncle Albert rolled down his window, beckoned him over, holding his wallet out the window because he was going to pay. He said, “Français?” Dave nodded, and Uncle Albert asked him en Francais if he knew La Rochefoucauld and went on to quote, Quelque prétexte que nous donnions à nos afflictions, ce n’est souvent que l’intérêt et la vanité qui les causent. [Loosely, “I don’t know how we ignored the warning signals either, but whatever our sorrows it is usually self-interest and vanity that cause them.”]

     Dave nodded again. He said, beginning in English, “The only one I know is this de mon grand-père : Le bonheur ou le malheur vont d’ordinaire à ceux qui ont le plus de l’un ou de l’autre.” [Good luck or bad luck usually seems to go to those that already have the most of the one or the other.]

     Then he said, after Uncle Albert had paid him, “That should take you to North Bay, but I’d stop ‘n’ fill up at the next station - it’s about six miles down the road.” Then, in a delicious mock-Southern drawl, he waved, “Y’all take keh, heah?”

We took care. It cost us just less than $115 (Canadian) to fill up. It was an Esso station.

09.02.17

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 This continues the story of “Hell-bent to Paradise” (and back) that begins here and continues since, with one or two interruptions, because I cannot walk in a straight line; and there is much yet to be told. Panne d’essence took place the twelfth day of the journey (the 17th of July) on which we spent the night in Sudbury. In the next episode (the next day), we'll cross the bridge at the Soo. Then, we’ll be in Paradise for a little less than a week; then we’ll be home again. See here. The circle completes itself, even if the ends don’t quite match up without erasing and making adjustments; it’s like a seven-year-old drew it.