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The temperature gauge was right at 102 degrees. So Duke decided to go swimming down at the river. He had an inflatable rubber raft, his swim fins, and a twelve-pack of Budweiser. He loaded up his old rusty station wagon and headed out with the radio turned on full blast. The sky was deep blue and foliage lush green from recent rains.
Duke thought about the cool, refreshing river water and smiled.
But, as he rounded the last bend before the river, he saw a car stuck in sand up to its axles. A man was digging furiously around the tires, so Duke decided to stop and help out. He pulled off to the side of the road and got out. “Don’t get over too far or you’ll get stuck, too!” hollered the man.
“Need a hand?” asked Duke.
“Do I ever!” replied the man, who introduced himself as Will. Duke scavenged in the bushes, found himself a good stout piece of branch, and started digging alongside Will.
After they’d gotten most of the sand away from the wheels, Will got into the car and tried to start it. It sputtered afew times and then quit. “What else can go wrong now?” wailed poor Will.
So, Duke lifted the hood and wriggled a few wires. “Looks like your battery terminals are all corroded. I’ll clean them off,” he concluded. So he got out his pocket knife and scraped the corrosion off. Then, he connected the terminals back on to the battery. “Try it now!” Duke suggested. So Will got back in and turned the key. The engine turned over a few times, then slowed until it quit. “I reckon we’ll have to jump it off. Sounds like the battery’s drained. You got any jumper cables?” asked Duke.
Will said he had some in the trunk, so he went to fetch them. But when he turned the trunk key, it broke off in his hand. “Oh no! What else is gonna go wrong?” moaned Will pitifully.
“Reckon we’ll have to dig that key outa there, spring the lock, or go in from the back seat,” said Duke patiently. So, they each tried digging the key out, but it was hopelessly stuck. Then, they tried springing the lock, but it wouldn’t give. So they hauled the back seat out of the car, giving them access to the trunk. Will squirmed and struggled until he finally got hold of the jumper cables.
They put them on and tried, once more, to start the car, but it just wouldn’t catch. “I think you’ve flooded it. We’ll have to sit and wait a while, then it’ll start.” Meanwhile, the sky had turned from blue to a deep shade of gray. “Looks like rain,” Duke observed.
“Just one more thing to go wrong!” groaned Will.
Sure enough, within a few minutes a hard-driving rain began to fall. So they got in Duke’s truck, listened to the radio, and drank a few beers. This seemed to cheer Will up considerably, and by the time the rain quit, he was in high spirits. So they got out and tried again to start Will’s car. No luck. “I think I ran my battery down playing the radio while we waited out the rain. Reckon I’ll just leave it running for a while so it charges back up,” said Duke. So they went back and sat in Duke’s truck, talked, and drank a few more beers while Duke’s battery recharged. “It ought to be good to go now,” sighed Duke, who was getting hungry and tired. This time, Will’s car cranked right up and kept running.
But when Will tried to drive out of the sand pit, he just dug it in even deeper. “I can’t believe it. What else can gowrong now?”
“Reckon we’ll have to dig some more,” offered Duke as nicely as he could.
But by this time, the sun was going down and frogs were beginning to sing. So they dug as fast as they could while it was still light enough. When it looked like the sand had been dug out enough, Will, looking grim and defeated, cranked his car and gave it the gas. But in his state of anxiety, he gave it too much gas and it choked and died. “This can’t be happening! What else can go wrong?” he sobbed.
Duke looked at him, his patience finally worn thin. “Would you please,” he yelled, “STOP SAYING THAT!”
