A Red Car

Zach was still babyish, with soft blonde curls and rubber band wrists, that delicious phenomenon that occurs when a baby is so chubby, it looks like a rubber band is constricting the wrist joint, causing the baby fat to rise up on either side of the deep crevasse. He had a soft moon face, said only a few words and smiled with 4 teeth. Temper tantrums were still a few months away. One foot tentatively reached for toddlerhood, one was still dragging behind in infancy.

Up until this day, Zach had been known to push a big plastic bus around the kitchen as he crawled next to it. He had practiced walking behind a pushcart. But, none of these wheeled inventions held his fascination quite like the little red car that was about to enter his life. Steve had gotten home from work and absentmindedly pulled a plain red matchbox car out of his pocket. A co-worker had discovered the car in his box of Cheerios that morning as some promotional gimmick. He thought our little boy might like it.

Commence car obsession. When Steve handed the car to Zach, sitting happily in his booster seat at the kitchen table, Zach stopped and starred at it in amazement. All was forgotten as he rolled it on the table in front of him, then on the floor with his head on the ground, watching it cruise across the vinyl floor. From that day on, he always had a car in each hand, in his bed, in his car seat. They helped him feel better when he was sick or anxious. They provided hours of entertainment. He loved his cars so much that he only trusted me to take care of them when he was occupied with other pressing matters. Not even his grandma was worthy of being a car caretaker.

Today Zach is 8 years old and is still going strong in his love affair with cars. There are days I’d like to find the coworker who so thoughtfully gave Zach the little red car years ago and punch him in the gut. How would he like to have about 4,000 drawings of cars, books about cars, car racing games, and endless conversations that stop only after I announce that I refuse to discuss cars any farther? But I know that Zach would have found his way to cars without this co-worker’s assistance. A love this strong would defy all odds to succeed.

All I can say is that this fascination better pay off. After enduring “all things car”, Zach better grow up to be an amazing car engineer or designer, make millions and take care of me in my old age. I deserve it after years of loyal service to his fleet of matchbox cars.