The Whirlwind

Brittany came home for a weekend recently. I think! It all happened so fast!

One of her sorority sisters was getting married here and it happened to be the same weekend as our neighborhood yard sale. I’ve only had one yard sale in my life, so I suggested she and I participate in it Saturday morning. (Thinking of the boxes and boxes of stuff she has stored at my house.) She agreed. (Thinking of all the money she needed.)

I didn’t think about the fact that John would be returning Friday night after a week in Germany. And I didn’t think about her inviting all of her sorority sisters over Saturday afternoon for pictures before the wedding. And I certainly didn’t think we’d be selling her old car and buying a new one that day too!

It took me 3 days to set up for the sale. By Saturday morning I was wishing I had never had the idea. The sale was scheduled to start at 7:30. The exact time Brittany had a car appointment to have her brakes looked at. John drove over with her so she could leave the car. Around 8:15 she returned, and not long after that the car place called and said in the near future she’d have to replace a few very expensive things. About that time a friend of hers from Charlotte arrived and talk turned to “wouldn’t it be nice to have a new car under warranty.”

The next thing I knew they were down on the computer with John. I meanwhile continued the yard sale. At 11:00 they were back long enough to tell me they were running to Car Max “just to see” how much they’d give her for her old car.

At noon, John came up and said he was meeting them at Kia “just to look” at what a new car would run. No problem, I’ll finish and clean up from the yard sale. At 3:30, after I had everything that was left put away and swept up, the first of her sorority sisters began to arrive. One by one they rang the doorbell, already knowing her whole story because she had talked to each on the phone from the dealership. At one time or another each of the girls had roomed with Brittany, so nothing surprised or bothered them.

15 minutes before they needed to leave for the wedding; Brittany, Charles and John arrived and one of them was driving an unfamiliar, but very cute, red car named Mia.

Somehow in 15 minutes, the girls swarming around her, she was dressed and made up, we took pictures and they were gone – leaving John and I standing in the kitchen looking at each other, saying, “What just happened?”