I have a friend called Joshua. He tells me that whenever his aunt and uncle come, they give a cool twenty dollars crisp note and a fresh fifty one while they leave. Now around the month of March-April they came to stay at his home. He stays there with his parents and his little sister and a younger brother. His elder sister got married and is currently now in Addis Ababa.
Well Joshua is nineteen years old, goes to college and has a driving license.The garage in their house is big enough to fit in two trucks, but it is completely occupied by his junk, those which he refuses to throw away.
Well, anyway, this time when his uncle and aunt came and they didn’t know where to park their car, as the garage was full of rubbish.So,Joshua told them that, he would park the car on the driveway of the house and asked them to give him the car keys.They did so and went into the house.
Joshua reversed the car out of the second gate of his bungalow and as he drove to the front gate , he saw that his buddy from college was standing at the corner of the road chatting with someone else and as you all know, instead of parking the car in the driveway, he drove straight to his friend and honked loudly to give him a surprise. His friend nearly jumped out of his skin. Joshua got off the car and went on to high-five his friend and his friend was truly cross with him for honking so loudly. So to make up to his friend, he took them in the car to a nearby burger shop and they had a hearty meal.
when they came out of the burger shop, it was surprising for Joshua to see two cops standing by his car and one of them was putting a wheel clamp on his uncle’s car. He went to the officer and said-“Officer this is my car.May I know why, you are putting a wheel clamp on the wheel?”
Officer-“You have committed two traffic offenses. Firstly, you have parked near a no parking sign and secondly (the famous one) the tail lights are on and blinking.”
Joshua-” I couldn’t see the no parking sign officer. As you can see the no parking board is too dusty and dirty and I truly didn’t know about the tail light. Please forgive me this time Or I will be in serious trouble as this is my uncle’s car”.
Officer-“Were you driving the car?”
Joshua-“Yes.”
Officer-“Then license and papers please.”
Luckily, for Joshua, that day his purse, actually did contain his driving license, as most of the days, he only carries it, whenever he is driving.
Joshua -” Here is my license and the car papers….., let me check” and he rummages through the dashboard and finally finds them.
Joshua-“Here they are officer”and he hands over the papers to the officer.
The Officer checks his license on the police computer and he finds everything in order.
Officer-“All is well.Here, take back your papers.”
Officer-“Here is your ticket for US$ 450. US$250 for no parking and US$200 for the tail lights being on.Pay it by the next seven days or there would be serious trouble.”
Joshua-“But, sir the total amounts to nearly all my annual savings!”
Officer-“Sorry, son can’t help you there.Next time follow the rules properly and carefully”.
The other officer removes the clamp from the wheel and the cops leave.
This time Joshua doesn’t bother about his friends.He simply drives off to his home and parks the car in the driveway.
Next day, with a glum face and nearly all his savings, he pays the fine.
He didn’t tell anyone about this episode, not even his parents.His savings was now relegated to about twenty dollars.
This time when his aunt and uncle were leaving, they gave him a crisp $100 note, but he didn’t thank them as he was still grumpy and as they left his house ,Joshua looked up towards the sky and said-“God, this hundred dollars, cost me four hundred and fifty dollars.Wow.” Saying so and muttering to himself, he went inside to have his breakfast.
Morale of the story-A stitch in time saves nine and always be careful, awake,alert,be serious and obey the rules as and when your hands are at the steering.
