License to Drive

Simmy had just poured herself a cup of coffee when the phone rang.
'Hello?'
'This is the dental office calling. Sam has an appointment at...'
Simmy tuned her out and when she stopped talking, she said politely, 'Thank you. Have a lovely day!'
She hung up the phone and replayed the telephone call from 'Horn' the day before.
'Hello?'
'Vat are you doing?' The Dutch accent was firmly in place.
'I'm making flowers,' Simmy answered simply.
'I thought you would come here today to drive us to the grocery store."
There was silence on the line as Simmy tried to decide what to say... it wasn't their weekend to come out; it wasn't even weekend anymore, it was Monday; she thought...
'No, no, you don't have to come,' he said when the silence became too long. The happy laugh gave him away.
'Didn't Mom call here last week to tell us you got your license back? She hung up and didn't leave a message but I got an email later that said you passed your drivers' test.'
'Yes, that's right! You know, I just told the examiner that if I didn't hear everything right, it was just because my hearing aid was acting up. He said, 'Oh, don't worry! My Dad lives in Texas and he is always complaining about his hearing aids too. He's about your age.'
'Did you pass your parallel parking too?'
'Yes!'
'I was a little worried about that part,' Simmy said.
'I wasn't because I read in the book that you can have 3 chances... so I wasn't worried about it. I bumped the curb the first time so I had to try again but I made it the second time.'
'That's really good,' Simmy replied.
'You know what he said to me when we were going to go back in to the building? He said I should make my face look very sad when your Mom and Aunt saw us.'
Simmy laughed, delighted that the examiner had been willing to make the whole experience a positive one.
'And?'
'Well, the examiner couldn't even keep it in and he laughed and gave it away,' Horn said.
'I was going to make you a card with an old man sitting behind the wheel of a car with a big grin on his face,' Simmy suggested.
'That would be nice,' Horn said diplomatically.
'We'll see you for the big party in two weeks then,' Simmy said with a chuckle.

Simmy hung up the phone and relayed the story to Sam... who laughed as well.
'Well, at least things turned out better than that 1988 movie... I'm just not in the mood to bust the old guy out of prison for illegal driving. You get your teenagers through all that driving stuff just in time to do it all over again for the old folks.'
Never a dull moment with sandwich generation hoo- hah.