Papa Trades the Emerson

Note: This is a short story I wrote for a Creative Writing class I took in 1992. It is a fictionalized account of an incident in my grandfather's childhood.

1921

"Papa! Papa!" Six-year-old Gordon ran breathlessly into the barn followed closely by four-year-old Lawton. "Mama says to tell you, there's a man wants to see you."

"Oh? Who is it, son?" Papa straightened from pitching hay.

"It's that new man that's moved in down the road. I heard him tell Mama he was interested in the old Emerson." Gordon pointed to the broken down car that had been parked in the barn for the past three years.

"I guess I better go talk to him. You boys stay here and help Cousin Earl. I'll be back in a few minutes." Papa leaned his pitchfork against the wall and went out of the barn.


"Cousin Earl, why would anyone want the old Emerson?" Gordon asked. "It ain't any good. Papa hasn't used it since we went to see Grandma and Grandpa Luker that time."

"Well, I don't know." Earl answered. "Maybe the man knows how to work on automobiles and could get it fixed up and running again. It looks like it's in pretty good shape except for that broken drive shaft." Cousin Earl had been a soldier in the war and he knew about things like that.


In a few minutes Papa returned with the neighbor man. They walked over to the old car. "There she is, Mr. Miller. Like I said, I parked her right there about three years ago and haven't done a thing to her since."

Mr. Miller walked around the car and examined it carefully. "Well, Mr. Easley," he said. "I'm definitely interested. I've been needing a motor car and I believe I could get this one up and running again. I've got a horse I'll trade for the car if you'd be willing to help me get her patched up enough so I could get her home."

"I'd be agreeable to a deal like that," Papa told him. He gestured toward Earl and the boys. "This is my nephew Earl. And these are my two boys, Gordon and Lawton."

"How do," Mr. Miller nodded.

"Earl's been helping me on the farm since he got back from the war," Papa continued. "He sure learned a lot about this modern machinery while he was gone. Maybe he can help us get the car started."

"Be glad to, Uncle Frank," answered Earl.


The men laid aside the harnesses and other implements that had collected on the car over the years. They set about trying to temporarily repair the drive shaft. Lawton stayed right at Cousin Earl's heels, and Gordon was handy to lend his assistance wherever needed. After awhile Mr. Miller stepped back.

"There!" he said with satisfaction. "That should hold 'til I can get home and work on it some more. Let's try to start her up."

Earl and Lawton moved around to the front of the car where the hand-crank starter was. Gordon stood by Mr. Miller on the passenger side. Papa reached in the car from the driver side to turn on the starter switch. Earl turned the crank and the car started. What no one had realized was the car was in gear. It started rolling off down the barn hall all by itself!

Earl was a husky fellow, six feet tall, about two hundred pounds. He grabbed the front fender of the car and put his should against the radiator, trying to hold it. He hollered, "Get in it, Uncle Frank! Get in it!"

Papa fumbled trying to get the door open. Earl realized he couldn't hold the car any longer. As he released it he grabbed Lawton and jumped out of the way. When the car went by him he pitched Lawton in the back seat. Papa's good "dress" buggy had been parked in front of the car, but the car just shoved the buggy on ahead of it down the length of the hallway till it came to the big sliding door. But that didn't stop it either. The car pushed the buggy through the door and out into the barn lot another two hundred feet until the men got it stopped.

The buggy had been torn to pieces, but the old Emerson car, with Lawton in the back seat, was unharmed. Mr. Miller drove it on home. Papa had to repair the barn door and replace the buggy, but he got rid of the old Emerson and got a horse out of the deal.

By Karla Cook. Copyright 1992.