Conversation Between Two Immobile Vehicles

Pop tunes blastng out of the RV are stiring up the silence of Stone Turtle property.

Ma-i-a hi, Ma-i-a hu, Ma-i-a ho, Ma-i-a ha-ha
Vrei să pleci dar nu mă, nu mă iei
Nu mă, nu mă iei, nu mă, nu mă, nu mă iei (...)

Buck, the old truck standing next to her, can't supress his sarcasm:

What's going on, Fleetwood? Are you becoming a disco now?

Wooo-hoo! Look at me, Buck! I'm playing music again! I'm a star! Pretty soon I'll be going to the stars myself...!

You ain't going nowhere no more, and you know it. None of us is. Just like me, you will continue the rest of your existence as a statue.

But Buck, those kids are serious. They got my wires hooked up again. My receiver with the seven speakers, plus the subwoofer. And this is only the beginning. They were talking about putting some giant screens into my windshield, add a laptop holder onto my steering wheel, and replace my engine with the most powerful computer on the site.

Replace your engine? Hahahaha! You gotta be made of plastic to get excited about such a thing. What's a vehicle without a motor?

Hey, don't be ripping on my ultralight fiberglass shell! No steel clunker of your kind could ever grow to my proportions. Besides, what have YOU been doing with your engine over the last sixty years? Has anyone even bothered to crank you up lately?

Kid, believe me, I did my part hauling things back and forth this great land! And no, we didn't have fancy plastic back then. Yet, the Okie family managed to live in, on, and all around me for a good many years. But they didn't call it 'recreation' back then. It was just getting by.

Did they put you here in your permanent parking spot?

Oh no, I was used as a work truck for a long time following that. When I finally was parked for the last time, I became one with the land. It passed through many hands, and guess what: those folks used to refer to this place as "the property with the truck".

Oh-ho, so that makes you famous then, right?

More famous than a mobile home that's not quite so mobile! You know, for two-thirds of my time I've been parked in this here spot. And since I don't get to go out myself, I just watch all those who do come and go.

So you know the people who were here before the old man who lived inside me?

Oh yes. Him and his buddy, they built that shop over there, with that green Ranger who met the same fate as us. Before them, there was this Persian prince...

What? The Prince of Persia? Who had to escape from a dungeon in order to ...

This ain't a video game, kid! But how could you know, you just rolled off the conveyor belt in the 90's. About fifteen years before you were manufactured, Shah Pahlavi of Iran was ousted in an Islamic revolution. This guy was kinda close to him... not exactly sure how close, but close enough to get out of the country as fast as he could, otherwise he would have ended up in a dungeon.

Wow... And he was living here?

For a while. But it was not him who set up all these irrigation lines. That was the previous owner, who was dreaming about an orchard. What do you think happened? Do you think any of those trees survived? Not a single one of them! And by now all the irrigation is so old you can't even open the faucets.

I tell you, that's all dreams! Same as you becoming a starship. So play your music while you can, because that's all you'll get to do ever again.

Don't be so mean, Buck! Those are good kids out there. They mean well. I wouldn't be surprised if they put the skin back on your cab, too.

Well, that would be quite sweet, actually. It would keep the wood from rotting so fast. They may even try to crank my engine.

But what comes then? Do you see me driving around the dirt roads out here? Or going to fancy car shows? Maybe get a nice new registration? No, kid! Those days are over. Though I sure would love to get a few more years of looking around before being hauled away for scrap. I may even see you turn into a starship. Wouldn't that be something...?