The Last Lecture

The Last Lecture
18
Lucy, I’m Home
O NE WARM day, early in our marriage, I walked to Carnegie Mellon
and Jai was at home. I remember this because that particular day
became famous in our household as “The Day Jai Managed to Achieve
the One-Driver, Two-Car Collision.”
Our minivan was in the garage and my Volkswagen convertible
was in the driveway. Jai pulled out the minivan without realizing the
other car was in the way. The result: an instantaneous crunch, boom,
bam!
What followed just proves that at times we’re all living in an I
Love Lucy episode. Jai spent the entire day obsessing over how to
explain everything to Ricky when he got home from Club Babalu.
She thought it best to create the perfect circumstances to break the
news. She made sure both cars were in the garage with the garage door
closed. She was more sweet than usual when I arrived home, asking me
all about my day. She put on soft music. She made me my favorite meal.
She wasn’t wearing a negligee—I wasn’t that lucky—but she did her best
to be the perfect, loving partner.
Toward the end of our terrific dinner she said, “Randy, I have
something to tell you. I hit one car with the other car.”
I asked her how it happened. I had her describe the damage. She
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