Brain Disabled

I may have mentioned that after my father-inlaw passed away, his wife moved in with us so we could care for her. That means I have free access to my father-in-law’s mini van.

Somehow using it defeats my manhood. Still, it’s convenient for driving my mother-in-law around as we can pack her wheelchair. She also has one of those disabled parking passes.

That’s kind of neat since we can park really near to any destination she has in mind. The past few months she hasn’t gone anywhere so the van has pretty much sat idle. Up until this past week, that is.

The first day we started out with just a ride and it turned out to be enjoyable for her. The second day she wanted us to take her to the store and run a few errands. Everywhere we went, she insisted we park in a disabled stall and proudly displayed her placard on the rear-view mirror.

It’s like a “Red Badge of Courage” for her, which I have zero problems with. Then I told her I needed to stop at a drugstore to pick up one of my prescriptions. I started to park in a regular far-away stall and she told me to park in a disabled stall near the store even though she wasn’t going in.

I told her I couldn’t do that because I’m perfectly healthy and would feel badly if I did that. She wouldn’t take no for an answer. So I parked in a disabled stall right next to the store entrance. As my luck would have it, there was a crowd of people, who watched me pull up.

I felt so guilty that when I exited the van, I started limping in an effort to legitimize my parking there. Suddenly someone I knew saw me, ran up and asked what happened to my leg. My face was red from embarrassment and I replied, “Temporary loss of intelligence.”

Eileen Tokita creates art pieces by embellishing iPhone covers with Swarovski crystals. She also teaches this craft at Ben Franklin stores: eileentokita.com Take a bead on her work then send your web-sites to me at rnagasawa@midweek.com.