Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 31, 1994                   TAG: 9409010041
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BEN BEAGLE
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

EL VIEJO WILL RIDE AGAIN!

The old man backed the car out of the driveway. But it did not stop with the same authority it once had.

He had lost the courage of his youth and he would not drive the car farther. He drove it back into the driveway and he saw the rivulet of brake fluid on the asphalt.

"Caramba," he said to the hot August sky. "Must I now suffer betrayal at the hands of a vehicle I have long relied upon? Must it ever be thus with old men after they have left their courage behind in the dust of their youth?"

"Madre de Dios," he said to the woman, "now that the Cherokee has become disloyal, I feel the hot breath of the hyena more keenly."

The woman sighed. It was more of a lament than a sigh from one who has known too much of folly and sorrow.

"In what way has the Cherokee done you an injustice, viejo?" she said. ``Surely, it is not the end of existence, eh?"

"It may well be the end of my existence if I drive this thing with brakes that have bled to death on my driveway," the old man said.

"I do not wish to die on the Road of the Roselawn.

"And this has come in the eighth month, which is the month of the inspection. Can you deny, mujer, that the fates are conspiring against thy husband?"

"I do not think it is the fates, viejo," the woman said. "I think it is a matter of time and of rusting brake lines. The vehicle has many years, and none of us, including 1978 four-wheel drives, are immutable, mi corazon."

"This is true," the old man said. "There are the times when we are young and bold and when we think we are immutable. It is a time of happiness and of calvados drunk in the glory of youth. Now, the calvados does not taste the same and the laughter is dead."

"It is so if thee say it is, viejo," the woman said.

"It is sad," he said, "that one who once had the bravery to run before the bulls should be frightened at a mere mechanical failure."

The woman knew he had never run before the bulls and had never known calvados. But she did not contradict him.

"Our son will be able to help thee in the matter of the brakes, viejo," she said. "This should make thee more cheerful."

"That is true, mi querida," he said. "But who will be of aid when certain lines within an old man rupture and he hears and smells the hyena in the bush?"