"Asians love their rice and they can't drive." - Beveryn Casiwan Poole

My MS Chronicles:
January 26, 1996- I got my learner's permit in Cleveland. I was 24 years old. 
February 7, 1996- I started my nursing assignment at Rankin Medical Center. I also started terrorizing the streets of Pearl & Brandon with my shaky driving abilities.😅😅😅
🙏🙏🙏. 
Few months later... Having left a downpour in Pearl where I lived, we we're driving through the delta on our way to Cleveland. My friend Janette was driving lead in her Toyota Corolla, & I was behind her, driving this old red ford tempo owned by the agency that brought me here to MS. It has clocked many many miles & driven by a bunch of first time drivers before me. We've been driving for maybe 3 hrs in this cold rainy night & about maybe 45 minutes away from our destination. Now Janette is very protective of her first car and would always drive slow, couple that with the relentless rain, the constant motion of the windshield wiper, the flatness of the delta, seeing nothing but fields of soybeans for miles & miles..it was downright hypnotic. So when I hit a puddle, I was unprepared & hydroplaned my way into a soybean field. I sat stunned & unmoving for a few minutes until I felt water seeping into the car & that spurred me into action. My shoes!! I can't let it get wet!! It's leather!! So I did what any normal girl would do, I removed them, tied the laces together & draped them over my neck😂😂😂. The rice on the floor, by the backseat!..can't get that wet either! So like a normal person would do, I crawled halfway from my seat & heaved the 25lb sack of rice onto the backseat..saved! whew! Meanwhile, more swampy water has made it into the car & I was thinking, dang it! Bob(our agency VP) will have a conniption fit when he sees this. I already had to explain myself to him a few months before when I hit a middle-aged lady's truck at the metrocenter mall(wasn't my fault, I swear! She run a stop sign & my 24year old, new driver reflexes saved me from plowing hard into her truck...I really just nicked the corner but the dang woman wanted to sue so Bob had to intervene). 

I sat there until a kindly black man knocked on my window, asking if I was alright & motioning for me to roll down the window. I did that then, tunnel-visioned that I was, told him, I really need the sack of rice taken out from the backseat so it won't get wet. He got a strange look on his face then he said, "lady! We need to get you out of this field like right now!" The water was already close to reaching my seat so he helped me scramble out through the window, wade out & climb up to the road. He let me sit in his car with the heater on & bless his heart! he went back for the rice! While I sat there, I noticed that the dashboard had this large screen with all kinds of numbers & info on it..some occasional staticky noise & it finally occurred to me, I was in a police vehicle! OMG! I got a little fidgety then..probly what every criminal feels like while sitting inside a police car😱..except I sat in front & I was without the handcuffs, hah! He comes back, introduces himself as Ben..he is a cop, off duty & on his way home. He was headed the other direction, saw me hydroplane & lose control & got to me fast as he could. Janette arrived just then & says.." I wondered why you turned right when there was no road there!" Ben said he will have to write a police report because the car was damaged( he looked sorry for some reason). I didn't realize the implication until a year later when I bought my first car & had to shop for car insurance.. & ended up having to pay more because of that police report. 

We waited for the tow truck, said my profuse thank you to Ben for going above & beyond, then me & Janette drove on to Cleveland. Safe & warm at Janette's apartment, a few of our friends came by( One of them to pick up her sack of rice) & as I related the events of the night, couldn't help but laugh at myself. I tried to picture what Ben saw at first..a disoriented asian girl, barefoot, with her shoes hanging on her neck, water flooding her car, & asking him to save her rice...priceless!!! I'm sure I fully proved that american cliche about asians...they love their rice! & they can't drive😀!

(Bev'ryn is my sister who lives in Mississippi, USA. She posted this in her FB wall and I thought it was good story writing. When she retires, she wants to have a small book shop where people can go sit and read some book while sipping their coffee. Now I think she should start writing short funny stories so that when that retirement time comes, the reading materials for the coffee shop are ready. 

Incidentally, this story got even more relevant for me because I have been here in Spain for some 13 days now and after 6 days of eating only sandwich and 'pinchos', I met a family from Hingyon, Ifugao who adopted me and I finally started eating rice at least once a day! - 04102015)