{"id":10812,"date":"2023-04-21T17:15:46","date_gmt":"2023-04-21T22:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/?p=10812"},"modified":"2023-04-21T17:25:47","modified_gmt":"2023-04-21T22:25:47","slug":"whos-driving-by-freeman-payne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/2023\/04\/21\/whos-driving-by-freeman-payne\/","title":{"rendered":"Who’s Driving? by Freeman Payne"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

Who’s Driving?<\/strong><\/h1>\n

by Freeman Payne with art by Dustin Burkett<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAlvin got a new car!\u201d
\n\u201cAlvin got a new car!\u201d
\nSoon everyone had heard, their excited exclamations buzzing In Alvin\u2019s psyche.<\/p>\n

Soon little guy and little Alv were talking with Guy and Alv. They all liked cars.
\n\u201cWhat kind is it?\u201d
\n\u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d Guy continued. \u201cI heard Alvin talking and he said it\u2019s a 1963 Chevy Impala station wagon\u201d
\n\u201cA station wagon! What a dud!\u201d
\n\u201cNo, no it\u2019s not\u2026It\u2019s a drag car. It\u2019s blown, fuel-injected, drag slicks and road legal!\u201d
\n\u201cWhat\u2019s that mean?\u201d Lil guy asked.
\n\u201cI don\u2019t know\u2026but is sure sounds cool.\u201d
\n\u201cYea\u2026.buuuutt\u2026Who gets to drive?\u201d<\/p>\n

Lil Alv and Lil Guy turned to see Alv and Guy.
\n\u201cI bet he got it for Mom. She\u2019s been driving us a lot.\u201d
\n\u201cI don\u2019t know Lil Alv; addiction has been driving a lot too,\u201d Alv chimed,
\nTheir worry written on their faces.
\nAll of them had problems when addiction drove the psyche.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to drive first!\u201d
\n\u201cStop jumping around Lil guy! What are you? A Mexican jumping bean?\u201d
\n\u201cThis is strange,” said Alv. \u201cOnly four of us can go along so that means two of us won\u2019t get to go.”
\n\u201cYea, you know mom and dad will go. They always drive us.\u201d
\nThey all looked at each other with somber faces. The two younger boys crying.
\nThis was really scary for Alvin\u2019s psyche; Alvin had never been in the driver\u2019s seat. He\u2019d always been in the back seat staring out the window watching wherever Mom, Dad, religion, or addiction had driven him.
\nNo one knew who was going to drive. Much less how everyone was going to fit into the car and still have room for all their stuff. This was going to change things.<\/p>\n

Alvin got his new car on Friday. It was now Monday and the anxiety was driving all six of them bonkers.
\nLil Alv was alone today. Lil guy had gone to be with mommy. It was really Alvin\u2019s wife but no one could tell the difference. The entire psyche was sitting around playing chess.<\/p>\n

Check.
\n“Whaaa\u2026.” Lil Guy came storming into the room, diving into Big Guys arms. Big guy and big Alv kinda knew what was going on. They too were scared but being twelve they understood more of what was happening. All their attention was on Lil Guy. After a few minutes he fell silent. Tears welling in his eyes he locked them on Big Guy.
\n\u201cHe threw her out\u2026waaaa,\u201d he screamed, bursting into tears.
\n\u201cWho\u2019s gone?\u201d
\n\u201cMoohhhmmmiiieeeee\u2026..\u201d His wails echoing into the silence.<\/p>\n

Over the next hour the silence continued as Alvin happily went about his day.
\nSoon he took each part of the psyche and explained to them what was going on.
\nLil guy and Lil Alv came back trying to figure out what Alvin meant by claiming them. They went to ask Alv and Guy but Alvin had already taken them.
\n\u201cSo what do you think he meant?\u201d
\n\u201cI don\u2019t know Lil Alv, Alvin said he liked us, that we were a part of him, even the bad stuff.\u201d
\n\u201cWhat about being core Lil Alv. Any idea what that means?
\nAbout that time, Alv and Guy showed up. They asked them but they too still didn\u2019t get the big picture. They just kept mumbling.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all one person?\u201d
\n\u201cWe are him?\u201d<\/p>\n

It was way too much for them to understand.
\nSoon Big Guy and Big Alv returned.
\n\u201cGet your stuff,\u201d they bellowed. Both knew the big picture and that meant neither one of them got to drive.
\nBig Guy was helping all the guys
\nBig Alv was helping all the Alvs. It took awhile but soon all six of them were sitting by the mountainous piles of their stuff. Each talking things over, trying to figure out what would happen next.
\n\u201cWhat I don\u2019t get, Big Alv, is that we\u2019ve never all got to go along for the ride before.\u201d
\n\u201cYou know,\u201d Big guy continued \u201cIt was Mommy, Old mom, Dad, addiction, religion and only one of us got to go along. We\u2019ve never seen Alvin all at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYea!\u201d they all chimed.
\n\u201cAnd look at us; we\u2019re all sitting together, we\u2019ve never done that before\u201d<\/p>\n

VROOM VROOM\u2026RUMBLERUMBLERUMBLE\u2026BANG!<\/p>\n

Alvin has started the car.
\nEveryone stood in awe as he pulled up in a \u201963 Impala wagon drag car. It was a bright lemon yellow with purple\/blue\/orange flames running its entire length. It was one hot machine.
\nIt rumbled to a stop. Alvin chocked it down and was soon admiring the car along with his entire psyche.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, let\u2019s load up,\u201d Alvin exclaimed.
\nAll the Alv\u2019s and Guys just looked at him. The question of who was going to drive was finally at hand.
\nEach one looked to him, longing to slide behind the wheel.
\n\u201cI\u2019m driving\u201d Alvin spoke boldly. And with authority.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one else, from now on it\u2019s just me.\u201d
\n\u201cWhat about our stuff?\u201d Lil Alv whined
\n\u201cAll our excess baggage stays.\u201d
\n\u201cBut\u2026but\u2026\u201d
\n\u201cHey guys, this is ME,” he said pointing to each one of them.
\n\u201cEach of you contributes to me and make me a whole person. I accept each of you and I claim each of you as my own. Your problems are my problems. Your hurts and pains are my hurts and pains. You are all me and we are all one.<\/p>\n

Alvin designated seating arrangements and got in.
\n\u201cFingers on noses\u201d he said.
\nWE all did. The automatic doors shut. We were finally all together, One person, happily going along with Alvin finally in the driver\u2019s seat.<\/p>\n

StateoftheOzarks Writers Artists Night 2022<\/strong><\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Who’s Driving? by Freeman Payne with art by Dustin Burkett \u201cAlvin got a new car!\u201d \u201cAlvin got a new car!\u201d Soon everyone had heard, their excited exclamations buzzing In Alvin\u2019s psyche. Soon little guy and little Alv were talking with Guy and Alv. They all liked cars. \u201cWhat kind is it?\u201d \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10813,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1668],"tags":[1142,420,1815],"class_list":["post-10812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-writers-artists-night-2022","tag-dustin-burkett","tag-freeman-payne","tag-writers-artists-night-2022","category-1668","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10812"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10816,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10812\/revisions\/10816"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}