Turn Signal

Aunt Mary Jo ordinarily goes away each Christmas, but she didn't this year, so I picked her up today and will again tomorrow. We were quiet as we came up to her trailer, and I turned on my turn signal to make the last turn there. The sound of the turn signal was really powerful -- a sense of warmth, homecoming, and expansiveness around it. That sounds dumb to use those words for a turn signal, but the reason I do, I guess, is because that was such a powerful feeling when I was a child: my mom driving me home from someplace on a cold winter night, and I'm tired out, already beginning to fall asleep a bit. That turn signal sound would make something stir in me. It just sounded like there were pillows filling all the space inside the car. Nice and soft.