It’s time for another Friday Fictioneers. I asked my wife what genre to write and she said, “romance”. So this is about as close as I get to romance. This story is dedicated to her.
copyright Beth Carter
Ichiban The Great
I told my wife I married her for her car. She laughed and called me an idiot.
Ichiban, as we called it, was dirty-diaper brown and shivered like a Floridian doing the Iditarod if you got it over 70 MPH. We lost the front bumper to a deer; the back one to a malicious fire hydrant. The hubcaps all took their leave at high speeds on various country highways.
Finally, we lost the roof to a firefighter trainee who Jaws-Of-Lifed it off, mistaking ours for the practice car. We just laughed and kissed. We had our convertible, top permanently down.
The Green-Walled Tower 
February 27th, 2013 at 11:35 pm
Really nice and clever touches to that!
February 27th, 2013 at 11:39 pm
Great take on the prompt – they sound like a happy go lucky couple.
February 28th, 2013 at 12:13 am
It’s based partially on reality, although I embellished it a tad. 🙂
February 27th, 2013 at 11:43 pm
awwww….. love this take on the prompt… why couldn’t i think of a story like that ><
February 28th, 2013 at 12:23 am
Bah~ Your stories are consistently awesome. 🙂
February 27th, 2013 at 11:44 pm
Looks like it has been very “lived in” 🙂
February 28th, 2013 at 12:11 am
Eric, I was just on my way to apologize to you for not getting out the next installment of Fantastic Travelogue. It’s all done, but then I ran into a plot gremlin at the end. It’s up tomorrow, I swear. 🙂
February 28th, 2013 at 9:08 am
Hello David,
No worries. I do apologise if I inadvertently put any pressure on you. Please do take your time – when it is up, I’ll read it 🙂
Blogging is supposed to be fun – not become a chore.
Cheers, Eric
February 28th, 2013 at 10:27 am
Oh, I know. 🙂 But I do try to stick to what I say.
February 28th, 2013 at 12:40 am
All this character packed in! Nice!
February 28th, 2013 at 1:00 am
Aw, reminds me of my old clunker. What is it about those junk heaps that inspire such fondness?
March 3rd, 2013 at 8:25 pm
They develop a personality, I think, that a new car doesn’t have. Maybe it’s all the memories we remember with them.
February 28th, 2013 at 1:25 am
Your usual good story, even if it was romantic. 🙂 I really liked ” shivered like a Floridian doing the Iditarod.”
janet
March 3rd, 2013 at 8:26 pm
Thank you. I don’t want to get stuck writing the same type of story all the time, so it’s good to experiment. 🙂
February 28th, 2013 at 1:39 am
Sweet & brilliant 🙂 Malicious fire hydrants are a menace!
March 3rd, 2013 at 8:27 pm
Thanks! You gotta watch out for them, just lying in wait to eat a back bumper when you bang into them. 😉
February 28th, 2013 at 2:11 am
Why ichiban?
February 28th, 2013 at 10:34 am
Ichiban means “first” in Japanese. We were both studying Japanese at the time, so that’s why.
February 28th, 2013 at 11:59 am
Thanks. Just wondering why there was a Japanese allusion
February 28th, 2013 at 12:09 pm
No, just a detail from real life.
February 28th, 2013 at 2:19 am
Love that the half car helps them see the glass half full. Great story.
March 3rd, 2013 at 8:27 pm
That’s a great way of looking at it. Is the car half there or half gone? 🙂
February 28th, 2013 at 3:27 am
Excellent 😀
February 28th, 2013 at 4:38 am
I just laughed and laughed,… You should definitely continue with romance.
February 28th, 2013 at 10:29 am
I’ll break out with Harlequin novels. 🙂
February 28th, 2013 at 6:50 am
Loved this, David… It ‘kicked’ along at a wonderful speed… 😉
March 3rd, 2013 at 8:29 pm
Thanks. I guess I started the story at the top of a hill and it was all downhill from there. 🙂
February 28th, 2013 at 6:58 am
Beautifully stated.
February 28th, 2013 at 9:59 am
That was a sweet story. I liked the ‘hubcaps taking leave’.
February 28th, 2013 at 11:13 am
Dear David,
There’s just too much in this story to like so without pinpointing each detail, let me just say it’s magnificently entertaining!
Shalom,
Rochelle
February 28th, 2013 at 11:23 am
Thank you, Rochelle. That is high praise. It’s half based on our first car, so this story means more to me than some others.
February 28th, 2013 at 11:17 am
Oh, goodness! I love everything about this… Dirty-diaper brown and shivered like a Floridian doing the Iditarod… and the great words keep coming! 🙂
February 28th, 2013 at 11:25 am
🙂 I took me a couple minutes to think of a good description for that shade of brown.
February 28th, 2013 at 12:10 pm
As a mother of four who grew up in Florida, I appreciated every single word in that sentence.
February 28th, 2013 at 12:19 pm
🙂 I was hoping I wouldn’t step on any toes, singling out Floridians, but I thought they’d probably agree with me.
February 28th, 2013 at 1:13 pm
Sounds like a wonderful vehicle–I’ll bet it had that stale smell of old upholstery, engine oil and gasoline which still brings back memories of a treasured first set of wheels. .
February 28th, 2013 at 1:20 pm
Pretty much. Back when any mode of transportation was a key to freedom.
February 28th, 2013 at 2:16 pm
Great take on this, so sweet
February 28th, 2013 at 5:50 pm
Romance is definitely hard to imagine in there and you’ve carved out a witty convertible. Cheers!
February 28th, 2013 at 6:42 pm
I like the story and the couple. Wouldn’t want to be near the escaped hubcaps, though.
March 3rd, 2013 at 8:30 pm
Yeah really. Little whirling discs of death.
March 1st, 2013 at 12:15 am
that’s pure optimism for you. well done.
March 3rd, 2013 at 8:31 pm
I think I would have been a little freaked out if my car got cut apart, but when I was first married was a pretty upbeat time of life.
March 1st, 2013 at 1:06 am
Love allows you to take every situation and see the best side. I like the idea of the perpetual convertible. Except for days like to day where I would mimic the “Floridians in the Iditarod.
March 1st, 2013 at 3:38 am
a lovely car story 🙂
March 1st, 2013 at 5:44 am
Certainly have a positive outlook on life, these two. I liked the malicious fire hydrant. Thanks for sharing.
March 1st, 2013 at 10:45 am
Well, when you’re young and in love… Maybe the first time it rained their view would have changed sharply.
March 1st, 2013 at 7:04 am
beautiful. I love it! My kind of romance 🙂
March 3rd, 2013 at 8:34 pm
Thanks. Mine kind too.
March 1st, 2013 at 11:00 am
this was really very lovely..very well put..probably one of the best I’ve read so far.
March 3rd, 2013 at 8:34 pm
Thank you so much. 🙂
March 1st, 2013 at 11:16 am
“shivered like a Floridian doing the Iditarod”–sweet image. Love this couple’s simple pleasure in a car. You painted the picture well.
March 1st, 2013 at 2:18 pm
wicked! are we?
March 3rd, 2013 at 8:35 pm
🙂
March 1st, 2013 at 2:31 pm
That’s the spirit: have fun no matter what happens. Everybody should have a car, and an attitude, like Ichiban.
March 3rd, 2013 at 8:35 pm
Exactly. Life is too short to worry about stuff.
March 1st, 2013 at 3:40 pm
Quite a few anecdotes that fit perfectly with the picture.
These guys are on “positive thinking” steroids! Very nice story, I enjoyed it.
March 1st, 2013 at 4:37 pm
Newly-wed bliss, I’m guessing. 🙂
March 1st, 2013 at 4:11 pm
Ah, a little romance. I love it! That car is their bond. Ha ha.
March 3rd, 2013 at 8:36 pm
I’ve got a lot of sides to me, and yes, even a romantic side. 🙂
March 1st, 2013 at 6:22 pm
That certainly left me smiling. Well done.
March 2nd, 2013 at 2:14 am
I liked your gentle description of the car, almost as if you were rubbing your hand upon its side while speaking of it.
March 2nd, 2013 at 3:33 am
Awwww…I could feel the love.
March 2nd, 2013 at 4:02 am
I love the line about the malicious fire hydrant. I once had a malicious power pole take a bite out of my rear bumper, so I can relate. Lot’s of good stuff in here, David.
March 3rd, 2013 at 8:37 pm
Thanks. Driving’s a real adventure when you think of all the stuff along the side of the road, just waiting to attack you.
March 2nd, 2013 at 4:34 am
Packed with great details, I’m amazed you got so much story into such a few words. The language really flows well too.
March 2nd, 2013 at 5:13 am
Love the story and the couple sure are easy going!
(My husband lost his front bumper to a dear last month. I wonder if his car will look like this in another 10 years? 😉 )
March 3rd, 2013 at 8:38 pm
I think their easygoing attitude comes from being young and poor. I’m sure a 50-year-old with a BMW would react this way. 🙂
March 2nd, 2013 at 5:33 am
LOL funny. I loved that you named the car and the line about it shivering like a Floridian doing the Iditarod is hilarious. Well done. And..most of us in the Ozarks have lost a front bumper to a deer!
March 2nd, 2013 at 9:40 am
This is a sweet story. Let’s hope they stay happy like that
March 2nd, 2013 at 3:35 pm
Very nice!
March 2nd, 2013 at 5:02 pm
Diaper brown? YUCK! Cute story, though.
March 2nd, 2013 at 8:42 pm
Yeah, that’s a pretty gross image. It was about that color though. 🙂
March 3rd, 2013 at 1:11 am
Hi David,
Fun and adventurous story with some romance included. Love to see this developed into a longer story. Ron
March 3rd, 2013 at 8:39 pm
Thanks, Ron. I find that a lot of the stories I read for the Friday Fictioneers would be awesome as longer stuff. I could think about it.
March 3rd, 2013 at 3:58 am
ha – that reminded me of when my Olds was approaching 200 thousand miles I mentioned to a friend I was looking for a house in a nice area. He said if you drive your car in there, they will call the neighborhood watch.
March 3rd, 2013 at 8:40 pm
People make a lot of assumptions about people based on their car. Or lack of one, as with me now.
March 3rd, 2013 at 6:18 am
I like this, it’s fun, it’s romantic, but not overly so. Great take on the prompt.
Dee
March 3rd, 2013 at 10:43 am
true love always leave us so blind…but it is sweet! hope that firefighter trainee got better training. 🙂
March 3rd, 2013 at 6:59 pm
Yeah, otherwise he’s going to go around cutting up any car that looks the least beat-up. 🙂
March 3rd, 2013 at 9:32 pm
I love this, David. He has such a lovely personality…
March 4th, 2013 at 5:23 am
This is the second most joyous entry this week! Really deliciously clever. I loved the malicious fire hydrant and the new convertible!
Terrific,
Thanks,
Laura
March 4th, 2013 at 2:44 pm
Thank you, I appreciate it. So, which one is the most joyous? I want to make sure I read that one. 🙂
March 4th, 2013 at 10:22 pm
Ichiban’s owner sounds like someone who knows how to make the best out of every situation. This was a fun response to the prompt!
March 5th, 2013 at 5:08 am
Really enjoyed your story and the full descriptions of how the car lost all its parts. 🙂