The Toolbox (1950)

 

I was living in Anaco, Venezuela, and I had just learned to drive.  My father had taught me how to drive.  So, around Christmastime... there were... I got a job, selling toys for Christmas.  There were no toy stores in Anaco, so... and the place where I was selling it was an old warehouse, and I was there from, mmm, I would say, from nine in the morning, mmm, til five in the afternoon, and, I thought that was lot of fun.  And there was nobody in the store but me, and all the toys.

 

Well, I was getting ready.   I came for lunch, and I was getting ready to go back to work, and my father came in.   He says, "Be careful on the highway.  It's been raining, and that highway can be very slippery."   Well, I turned around and gave him a look like saying, you don't have to tell me that, I know how to drive!  I mean, so... didn't answer to his comment.  I got in the pickup, and I took off.

 

From our house to that place, which was ah, probably ten miles, or a little bit more, the highway was hilly, and when you went up the hill it was sunny and dry, but when you went down... it was wet.  So, on one of those up and downs on the hill, as I went down,  I was thrown off the highway... because it was slippery.  And all I said to myself, "I must not close my eyes, because...I want to know what happens...exactly.  So I'm NOT going to close...!"  And I held on to the steering wheel.  Well, I went around and around and got thrown off.  When the car stopped, I was facing the way I had come from, but it didn't turn over, but it threw me completely off the....  And the minute the pickup hit the ground... I heard a noise.  And, ah... I ah, stood still and I said, "What was that?"  And I was gonna get out of the car, and investigate, but I said, "No! I must get on the highway, immediately!  Because somebody's gonna see me and they say, "Hey Grady, I saw your daughter, off the highway, you know, and she went off..."  and I didn't want to give my father the pleasure, that he had been so right, in warning me how dangerous those highways were when it rained. 

 

So, I got back on the highway...instantly.  And in no time, I got to the warehouse, and sure enough, there was already a pickup there.  From Menegrande.  And... they were orange pickups... so you could spot them from far away.  You always knew what company the pickups were... the color of... the... cars. And, when I got off,  there was that good-looking guy, called Roy Ketchum, and, he says, "I've been waiting here.  For awhile."  And I said, "I'm sorry, I got delayed."  So I quickly opened the door and showed him, and he bought a bundle of toys.  I said "Roy, what are you gonna do with all these toys?"  "Well," he says, "it's this girl that I'm dating, Aura Chasin,", he says "she has seven brothers and sisters. They're eight of them, and I want to give a gift to each one of the kids.  She's the oldest of these eight kids."  So he... we went in, and I helped him choose skates, and little trains, and dolls and what not.  And I was so involved on taking care of my good-looking client, that I had no time to think about the accident.  So, Roy left, and I started picking up, you know, boxes and things, rearranging, and...all the sudden, all the sudden, my legs were shaking.  And my first thought, I said boy, was it Roy Ketchum that made my legs shake?  Til I realized it was a late reaction to the accident.  I mean they were shaking!  I had to sit down, wow, because otherwise I was gonna fall.  And, well, after awhile, other people came and that entertained me and then I didn't think about it anymore. 

 

When I got home that evening, my father comes charging in, "Where did you park the pickup?!"  I said, oh my god, I didn't hit anything, I mean there are no bumps or anything, because I didn't hit anything, you know, I was just thrown off the road.  I said, "Well, right there, in front of the warehouse.  Why?"  "Somebody stole the toolbox!"  Huge toolbox that he had in the back, of the truck, but an enormous one, as wide as the back was.  I said, "Well, I don't know." 

 

The minute he said that, I ran back... to the place, to say... and I brought a friend with me, that we could have never picked up that toolbox, but anyway.  We got there, and it was gone.  Phhhht!  In Venezuela?!  It was gone in no time.  So I didn't say anything.  I just... said I'm not going to give him the pleasure, and he's just going to scold me, and... To find out that it was me, foolish me, that didn't realize, didn't hear his advice.

 

Well, years passed, cause by that time I was about 18.  Years passed, and now I'm already married, and one day we're there for Christmas at my father's house, and we're talking about car accidents and everything.  And I bring up this account of the... My father got up, and he was furious!  And it had been five years!  Five years of that accident. And he told me that that was the most stupid thing I could have done, and when... blah, blah, blah... And I was so hurt, that all he cared was about his toolbox and not his daughter, that hadn't been hurt, and, and..., so forth.

 

 So that's the story about the toolbox.