Photo by Samuel Zeller on Unsplash
Before The Beginning of Madness @tristancarax, @wakeupkitty and I were having a drink at the @freewritehouse. It was Tuesday and extremely busy at Jerry’s because of the sidewalk chillings between 5-7 PM. @tristancarax was sharing his mind-blowing theory about the shape of the earth, when all of a sudden he looks across and there is a mini van waiting. The window is being winded down and @iamjadeline is waving at him.
We all turned around and looked at a branded mini van. “@d00k13, your promo van is here!” I shouted.
"It ain’t mine, but it sure looks pretty” @d00k13 responded, feeling the vibe and breaking out some lines:
"The subs would be bumpin’,
Louder than clubs when they thumpin’!"
"Take it to the movies
Take it to the lumberyard
Or take it to the max"
@aejackson couldn’t resist to join in.
@improv continued the freestyle
"Mini Van for a Mini Fam.
A family of mini coopers inside a mini van.
Mini mini mini mini
Van van van van"
"both I and duckduckgo think this is one word – minivan” a voice from behind said. It was @fitinfun “It always surprises me when people break it into two words"
"What’s wrong?” I asked her “Don’t you like minivans?"
"As long as none of them hits me while I walk on the side of the road, it’s all good.” She responded with a smile.
Meanwhile everyone at Jerry’s had surrounded themselves around the minivan, mainly out of curiosity.
"I once owned a succession of mini-vans.” @owasco said “A whole fleet at one point"
"Do you miss the minivan life?” @ntowl asked.
“No. I’m happy to be rid of it,” @owasco said. "At a certain point, they become really hard to maintain.”
"Bad things can happen in older vans, especially ones with some tint" @kimberlylane confirmed.
@iamjadeline had stepped out of the van, so did the driver. It was @botefarm with a very sad face.
"What happened, can you share with me?” @wakeupkitty asked.
“It’s broken and I don’t know how to fix it”
“Don’t you have a brother who is a mechanic?"
"There's no time to check it out, is what he said” @botefarm silently responded.
"Is it yours?" @mrnightmare89 wondered. “No, it’s not” @botefarm responded. “I got adopted by a great group of people this week, they lended me this van.” He continued “When I got it, it didn’t feel right. I thought to myself: I have so many worries before I ride on it.”
@botefarm got even sadder “Now I tried it, and it is broken. Will you help me?"
@tristancarax decided to take a look “open up the hood, let me see what I can do. What is the issue?”
“The engine broke down this morning"
After 5 minutes of searching @balticbadger joined @tristancarax. "Any chance you can fix it?” Someone in the crowd asked. “We’ll see, I think I can” @balticbadger responded candidly. He thought he could and was generally confident in his own abilities.
It started getting even more crowded around the minivan. 10 minutes later, there was no sign of improvement. “Let me have a look” @mr-neil said as he pushed through the crowd of people towards the van.
“Why are you here?” @botefarm, seemingly getting more agree that so many people were getting way too close to the van. And now a guest of the Bed & Breakfast was also getting involved.
“My profession. My beautiful seaside resort home doesn't provide much opportunity.”
@mr-neil joked. It was not received well. “Easy peeps” I said trying to calm everyone down "@mr-neil is actually familiar with these kind of vans.”
He took a look at the engine, walk around, lit the engine and sputtered. “Not what you think it is.”
"What do you think?” @deemarshall asked from the crowd.
"Walk... I’ll go for a long walk, That’s what I think I’m going to do"@juliamulcahy responded as she could clearly feel the tension building.
“Don’t make me come up there.” It was @wonderwop yelling from the basement. He and @glenalbrethsen were helping @felt.buzz with the heating of the @freewritehouse in the basement.
"You better" @kaerpediem responded “There are a lot of know it alls up here, we need real help.” This made the situation even more heated. People kept moving forward and intervering, until all hell broke loose.
“@wonderwop we need you!” @kaerpediem yelled towards the basement. "I'll be right there” he said, not losing his composure. @wonderwop came out of the basement with jeans that were a size too small, and his triple-chin glimmered with sweat, visible even from this distance. He looked like a character straight out of a @kaelci movie.
"I wondered when one of you might show up," @wakeupkitty said. "We can’t fix two things at once" @glenalbrethsen responded who climb out behind @wonderwop and also looked like he just beat up an angry villain in a superhero movie. “Thanks for the help" @felt.buzz said, as he joined in as well "I couldn't do this without you.”
As @wonderwop and @glenalbrethsen looked at the van, slowly the crowd backed down. “It is the power transmission belt” @glenalbrethsen said as he looked towards @botefarm “you need a new one”.
Hmm.. a transmission belt. I checked eBay to see the going price. "No silly" @wonderwop laughed while looking over my screen. "You don’t buy these things on eBay."
@botefarm was delighted that the problem had been identified. "I don't want to appear ungrateful” he said “can I order these guys some SBI?”
The storm had somewhat calmed down and the weather had slowly changed as well as everyone headed inside. Someone turned to me and said “It’s good to have the @freewritehouse for these kind of small conveniences isn't?"
Why just a “small convenience”? @dranuvar asked. We could feel the tension building back up again.
I looked at @wakeupkitty and she nodded "The March Madness has to go on."
This is part 5 of my March Madness freewrite novel for the @freewritehouse.
Read the other parts here:
1.A Night at Jerry’s
2.The audition for Saturday Night dancers
3.The Meat and Gravy that wasn’t
4.500 Shades of Freewrite
Word count: 955 words
March Madness total: 3367
The Writers (or should we say the poor, afflicted MAD people)
@kaelci
@ireenchew
@mariannewest
@kaerpediem
@linnyplant
@aislingcronin
@balticbadger
@wakeupkitty
@juliamulcahy
@carolkean
@jeanlucsr
@freedomtowrite
Be sure to follow @freewritehouse for more March Madness.
This story includes sentence of and/or references to the following writers/stories:
@owasco > https://steempeak.com/freewrite/@owasco/day-501-5-minute-freewrite-tuesday-prompt-mini-van
@fitinfun > https://steemit.com/esteem/@fitinfun/freewrite-day-501-minivan
@d00k13 > https://steemit.com/freewrite/@d00k13/prompt-of-the-day-mini-van-ill-be-afraid-of-the-mess-sthpxq3v
@botefarm > https://steemit.com/esteem/@botefarm/deadly-mistakes-a-freewrite
@balticbadger > https://steemit.com/marchmaddness/@balticbadger/freewritehouse-march-madness-chapter-5-minivan-yod4dale
@juliamulcahy > https://steemit.com/marchmadness/@juliamulcahy/march-madness-the-crumpled-letter-part-five
@wakeupkitty >
https://partiko.app/@wakeupkitty/marchmadness-day-5-5v5vsilq
@kaelci > https://steemit.com/challenge/@kaelci/marchmadness-certainchaos-daysix-z1nrrhpquv
@fitinfun >
https://steemit.com/esteem/@fitinfun/freewrite-day-501-minivan
@improv > https://steemit.com/freewrite/@improv/mini-van-5minutefreewrite
@iamjadeline > https://steemit.com/freewrite/@iamjadeline/mini-van-or-5-minute-daily-freewrite-by-mariannewest
@kimberlylane >
https://steemit.com/freewrite/@kimberlylane/nissan-quest
@dranuvar > https://steemit.com/freewrite/@dranuvar/5-minute-freewrite-day-501-mini-van
@aejackson > https://steemit.com/freewrite/@aejackson/mini-van-5-minute-freewrite
@glenalbrethsen > https://steemit.com/freewrite/@glenalbrethsen/beware-the-bounty-a-five-minute-freewrite
@ntowl > https://steemit.com/freewrite/@ntowl/a-new-car-a-freewrite
@wonderwop > https://steemit.com/freewrite/@wonderwop/day-501-freewrite-tuesday-mini-van
@tristancarax > https://steemit.com/freewrite/@tristancarax/mini-van-day-501-5-minute-freewrite-tuesday
@deemarshall > https://steemit.com/freewrite/@deemarshall/entry-for-day-501-5-minute-freewrite-tuesday-prompt-mini-van
@mrnightmare89 > https://partiko.app/@mrnightmare89/day-501-5-minute-freewrite-tuesday-prompt-mini-van-8rknbaha
@mr-neil > https://steemit.com/freewrite/@mr-neil/a-story-about-a-minivan-46f67368661d4
@wakeupkitty >
https://partiko.app/@wakeupkitty/freewriting-i-need-a-break-fkoktkxt
https://partiko.app/@wakeupkitty/marchmadness-day-5-5v5vsilq
@felt.buzz > https://steemit.com/freewritehouse/@felt.buzz/mini-van-a-five-minute-freewrite-bhmecghp
Want to be part of this story simply join @mariannewest’s 5 minute freewrite.
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Special shoutout to @zord189 for this awesome signature
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