Once, of many times, I went to visit Uncle Bill and Mary without calling ahead. It was blazing hot, as it always seems to be in South Carolina. I pulled into the driveway and put the car in park, to the side and behind Mary’s car. The side storm door was wide-open. I left my car running and had my cellphone in hand because the house door was wide-open (you knew it before you saw it because the sound of the tv blaring out into the yard). I slowly approached the door, and sure enough, the inside door was wide-open, the lights were all on inside (even though it was mid morning). Neither Mary nor Uncle Bill was visible in their recliner chairs or the kitchen. Lucky wasn’t barking. I called out “Mary! Uncle Bill!” No answer. I stepped a few steps into the door, fingers on the keypad of my phone, “Mary! Uncle Bill!” I had called out loud enough to be heard upstairs, and still no Lucky barking. My skin crawled off my body as I backed out of the house. I couldn’t know what had happened. I peeked over the fence into the backyard (Uncle Bill would have loved to tease me like that, and Mary would have loved to go along with it) and they weren’t there. I grabbed the fence for support, with all these details there was only one thing that could have happened, a medical emergency and an ambulance and they were at some hospital for one of them. Who would I call? I went back into the house and shut off the tv, lights and shut the doors on my way out. I knew I’d need a minute to think of what to do next. I stepped onto the driveway, and nearly got run over as Uncle Bill whizzed past me to park the (old) car on the grass. Uncle Bill got out of the driver’s seat and walked into the house with barely a hello. Lucky remained in the shot gun seat looking out the window. Mary got out of the back seat. “Oh you’re here.” She greeted me cheerily as she opened the door to let Lucky out. “What do you mean, oh you’re here? You scared the daylights out of me.” “Why? Dad just wanted to try driving one more time so we all got in the car and went for a ride.” I went into the house, behind Mary, and dropped on the couch to catch my breath. Mary looked at me and said; “I suppose now that I look at it from your perspective, it would be a little scary.” “A little scary? Did you drive around the subdivision?” As light as a breeze she responded. “Oh no we went a way down Laurens Road (a busy 4 lane road) till Dad said he’d had enough and turned around and came back.) “I suppose he turned around in the middle of the road and didn’t wait for an intersection or anything.” “Oh sure” Mary said and she was up to let Lucky out in the yard. And that’s adventurous, when you get in the back seat of an old unreliable car with your dad (90 years old and hadn’t driven in a few years ) and go for a ride down a busy road – as Mary said; “Oh sure.”