The Lumina is POSSESSED!

No, it's not a code phrase. My car, a 97 Chevy Lumina, is possessed. Let me explain. This is slightly amusing and at the same time annoying. Here's what happened. Okay, check this out. So, my car is a piece of crap, right? Oh, you don't know that? Well, it is. It's not all bad but she's old. I only use the car when I'm driving to and from school, church, or work. So, today was like any other day. I left my house about 10 or so this morning to go to class. (I don't go to creative writing. It's magazine crunch time and we don't have class. So, virtually, I only have one class on Tuesday's and Thursday's.) I stopped at the gas station but kept my car running because I would only be in there for a second to get something to drink. Once I got my caffeine fix, I drove the rest of the way to school.

I went to American Lit and once that class was over, I strolled out with William, my good friend from my American Lit class, to drive home. He would normally walk me out to my car then go to his other class that he had at that time. He walked me out as he always did but didn't walk me all the way to my car. We got out of Lit late so, he didn't have much time. He watched me get to my car then turned and walked back inside. So, I get in and set my books in the front seat and stick the key in. The car usually won't do its little ding sound until the car cranks. Or if the lights are on and the door is open. But my car door was not open and my lights weren't on so, the dings didn't come on. So, I stuck the key in and turned it to crank it. It first sounded like it started to crank then completely stopped. And when I turned the key back to the off position, the dings that were normally there were very deformed and just sounded horrible which is what it sounded like when my battery went dead three years ago in the Walmart parking lot on a rainy Saturday afternoon. Luckily, I had a shift at McAlister's that night and I just ran from the Walmart parking lot to work. I called my dad for that one.

So, sighing heavily, I knew it had to be my battery. Logically, that had to be it, right? So, here I go. I call my dad. "Where are you?" I asked him. He informed me, "I'm in between Starkville and Louisville. I'm about two hours away, why?" Sighing, I said, "My car died." The rest of the conversation consisted of where are you, what does the car sound like, is it the battery, yada yada yada. So, he tells me to call my grandfather who lives right down the road from me. I called him and he informed me that he had a doctor's appointment at 1 in Madison. There was no way. So, I called my mother. It took me a couple of tries because she was in meetings but I finally got her. This was our conversation starting with my mother.
"Hey, did you try to call me?"
"Yep. About three times."
"Sorry, I was in a meeting Sweetie. What's up?"
"My car died."
"Your car died?"
"Yep."
"Well, where are you?"
"I'm at school. Are you out of meetings?"
"Yeah, I'm on my way."
About fifteen minutes later, she pulled up in the Hinds parking lot. (She works at St. Dominic. She's about ten minutes away from me) She pulled up beside my car and she said, "Throw me the keys I wanna see what it sounds like." I shrugged and said, "Okay. It wouldn't turn over for me." I tossed her the keys and she sat in my driver seat and put the key in the hole. The dings were perfect because the door was open. She turned the key to AUX and the dings were normal as well. (It will ding on auxiliary and when the car turns on.) She turned the key and it cranked fine. My mouth literally dropped open and I said, "Now, how'd you do that." She simply smiled and said, "I got the touch." So, I called my dad and told him, "Mom's magic fingers made the car crank. I'm gonna drive it home." With that, I drove home with Mom very close behind me. She informed me to stick with the right lane and if I sense the car about to die, pull over and we'll get a tow for it. But I managed to make it from Pearl to Florence. My mother thought it was the starter.

When my mom went back to work, I got a call from my dad. He started going into a spill about what the battery does and how it works and what not. He told me that the battery only sends the power to crank the car but the alternator does the work passed that. His theory is that when I started to crank the car and it didn't turn, the alternator already was charging the battery enough to get it to crank. So, in the thirty minutes that I left it alone, the alternator had charged the battery enough to crank the car. The reason I'm almost sure it's the battery is because my radio was off (and I had it on when I got to school) and my clock had jumped ahead an hour. (My clock in my car does not set itself when daylight savings time comes around. But it has changed the time around when the battery starts to go dead.) So, my dad says that the alternator charged it enough to crank it and that's how I got it home. When I got it home, my mother told me to crank it again. I did and it cranked fine. So, my dad's theory is that the connectors are corroded and needs cleaning or the battery is dead. Now, my car is ten years old. There's gonna be rust, dust, and corroded dodads under the hood. And it is about that time for the battery to die. The last time it was changed I was a Junior in High school. (3 years ago). It's about that time and my dad just got home so, we're going outside now to look at the options. Peace.