ONE NORMAL LIFE / TWO EXTRAORDINARY LIVES

CHAPTER 95 – FUN AT THE DMV

A few days later, William came into the house, excitedly calling her name.

"What is it?" she asked, coming into the kitchen, "what's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong, come see!" he said, and dragged her outside with him. In front of the house was Clem, sitting in the driver's seat of the DeSoto.

"Wow, you guys did it!" she said to William and Clem.

"Yep, good as new," Clem answered, "wanna go for a ride?"

"Um, sure. Hold on, let me get something," she said, running back into the house. She went to her dresser drawer and got out the registration.

Buffy got into the backseat and handed William the registration, "Have to have this," she said, "just put it in the glove compartment."

William looked at it thoughtfully as he read through the vital stuff. It was registered to him, with the name of a former Sunnydale insurer. The registration said it was from 2003.

He opened the glove compartment and pulled out another one, "What's this, then?" he asked, "This one says..."

Buffy reached around and grabbed the old one, crumpling it in her hand, "It's nothing. A mistake with the DMV, they sent you the wrong one, we just never threw it away."

"But why was that in here and not the other one?"

Buffy shrugged, "I don't recall. Don't worry about it, okay? Just put that one into the glove box."

A frown crossed William's face, but he did what Elizabeth asked him to do.

They took a ride into town, with Clem explaining to William all about the car, the gears, road signs, and general stuff he would need to know when he started driving.

“It rides well, you guys did a good job,” Buffy said.

William beamed, “Yeah, we did, didn’t we?” he said, as he looked over at Clem, then over his shoulder at her.

Clem nodded.


The next day, Clem stopped over with a driver’s manual he’d picked up from the DMV.

“Thought you might want to start looking this over.”

William nodded, “Thanks, I will.”

“The test is done on a computer, just to let you know. Think it’s a touch screen.”

“Oh. What’s a touch screen?”

“Nothing to worry about,” Buffy said, “you just touch the right answer on the screen with your finger, and it registers it. Don’t even have to type.”

“Sounds easy, then. At least the test taking part. Don’t know if I’ll be able to learn all this.”

“Sure you will!” Buffy and Clem both said.

William grumbled something to himself as he looked through the booklet. “Glad you both think so. Right then, I’d best go and study up,” he said.

“You don’t have to do it right now,” Buffy said.

“Yes, I do,” he said, as he walked into the living room.


“He seems excited,” Clem said.

“More like scared,” Buffy replied, “I hope we’re not pushing him too fast.”

“He’s alright Buffy, he really is. He’s got a lot of hopes.”

“Hopes?”

“Yeah. Guy stuff,” Clem said, clearing his throat, “but in order to have any independence, he really does need to learn to drive. Unless you’re planning on driving him around the rest of his life…oh sorry, I didn’t mean to say…”

“It’s alright, Clem. I know what you’re saying. I just…I just worry, ya know?”

“I know.”

“Aren’t you coming to bed?” Elizabeth asked around midnight.

“In a little while, I just want to go over this one more time.”

She came up to him and shut the booklet; “You’ve done enough for now.”

He moaned, “Elizabeth!”

“Come on. You already passed the practice test online. Twice. And you probably know more of the rules than I do. You’ll do fine. Besides, there wasn’t any rush, you don’t have to take the test tomorrow.”

“I know that, I just want to. I want to be able to…do stuff…drive, take you places, too,” he said, looking up at her in his most charming, ‘why-don’t-I-just-melt-you-where-you-are-standing?’ way he had when he wanted her agreement.

“I know,” she sighed, “but there’s no use in over-studying this stuff. You went to college, you should know cramming isn’t the best way. Get some sleep first; then your brain will be nice and fresh to look it over in the morning.

He laughed, “Nice and fresh brain, huh?”

She rolled her eyes, “You know what I mean. Come on,” she said, holding out her hand to him, giving him her most winsome female look. He wasn’t the only one who could play that game.

“Okay,” he said, and allowed himself to be dragged off to bed. As if that was a bad thing.

July 23, 2008
Wednesday
8:00am

Buffy opened her eyes to see William standing next to the bed, fully dressed in his nicest clothes and holding out a breakfast tray.

“Rise and shine, sleepy head,” he said.

“What time is it?”

“It’s already 8:00am.”

“And you’re waking me up this early, because why?”

“I want to take my permit test,” he replied.

She moaned and pulled the covers over her head.

“Elizabeth! Come on!” he begged, pulling the covers back off.

“William, do you know they probably don’t even open for another couple of hours?”

“Nope, they open in one hour. I checked,” he said, “and if we get there early, then we won’t have to wait in a line for long, if at all.”

She sat up in bed, shaking her head, and allowed him to put the tray down over her lap. She picked up the coffee cup and sipped it.

“How long have you been up?”

“Um…got up about 6:30. Showered, dressed, looked over the booklet again. Took the test online again. You were right, much fresher today. Didn’t miss any! Oh, and then made you breakfast.”

She grinned, his enthusiasm contagious, “Okay, you win. Just let me get some coffee in me, then we can go.”

“No, you’ve got time to eat, too. Don’t want you going on an empty stomach. If we leave in 40 or 45 minutes, we’ll get there by 9:00am right when they open.”

“Anal, much?” she muttered.

“What?”

“Nevermind. Did you eat?”

He nodded, “Had some coffee and a muffin already.”


Buffy stopped in midair with a drink of coffee.

He cocked his head at her, “What?”

“I was just thinking about your car. We need to get it insured before you can drive it. If we do that now, then we can get a new plate on it and register it today, too.”

“That’s good,” he said.

“Can you bring me the phone?”

“Sure,” he said, going to get it.

“Oh, my purse, too,” she called.

“Okay.”

Buffy took the phone from him, and looked up her insurance agent’s number in her phone’s memory log, then pressed the corresponding number.

“Hello, Allstate, this is Barbara Macintosh.”

“Barbara? This is Elizabeth Worthington.”

“Hi, Elizabeth, what’s up?”

Buffy told the agent about needing to insure the car. She had thought she might need to put it under her name, since William wasn’t yet licensed, but that wasn’t the case. Barbara told her anybody could own and insure a car, even if they didn’t drive it. She gave Barbara all the vitals on William as far as his age, Social Security number, car model, VIN number, and other stuff. They decided on what sort of coverage was needed and the deed was done.

“Okay, Elizabeth, I’ve got the DeSoto insured in William Worthington’s name now, effective at noon today,” Barbara said.

“Really? That quick?”

Barbara laughed, “Yes, it would be even quicker, except Allstate’s doing some system maintenance until around then. But as soon as the system boots back up, his insurance will be in effect. He ought to receive his insurance card in about a week.”

“Won’t the DMV need to see it, though?”

“I don’t know. Just give them the policy number that I gave you, it should be okay. Here’s the verification number, too. That should do it.”

“Come on!” William called from the doorway.

“I’m coming, I’m coming! Sheesh!”

She started walking out to the car and was just about to get in when she remembered the title was still in her drawer, “Wait,” she said.

He groaned.

“Impatient much? You do want me to get the title so we can get it all taken care of today, don’t you?”

“Yesss,” he said, rolling his eyes and tapping his foot impatiently.

“Yesss,” she mimicked him once back in the house, retrieving the title. God, he could be so infuriating in his one-tracked mind. She grinned. “Obviously, some things never change, huh, Spike?”

They arrived at the DMV at 9:15am. There was already a line. They took a ticket; it read ‘10’ on it.

“See, I told you we should have gotten here earlier,” William said, exasperated.

“Well, maybe you should’ve gotten me up earlier then. In fact, maybe we should’ve just pitched a tent here overnight so we would be first in line,” she said, smiling at him, although her eyes were anything but.

He swallowed, “I’m sorry for being such a prig…I’m just nervous and wanted to get it over as quickly as possible,” he said, taking her hand.

“It’s okay. Don’t be nervous, you’re going to do fine,” she said, relenting, and squeezing his hand back.

“You sure about that?”

“Absolutely.”

Half an hour later, they were called to the counter.

“He’s here to his his test for a permit,” Buffy said first.

The girl looked over at him as if to ask what a guy his age was doing just now getting a permit, but she quickly hid it. She’d seen all kinds of people of all ages getting permits. Just this one looked more or less normal, and like he should’ve been driving at least a dozen years. Oh well, maybe he’d been in prison since he was a teenager or something.

“Um…miss?” Buffy said.

“Oh, sure, fill this out, then take it over to the lady behind the green counter over there. It cost $10 to take the test. Afterwards, they take your picture and then they’ll give you your permit.”

“Thanks,” Buffy said to the girl.

“William, why don’t we fill this out, then you can take the test? Afterwards, we’ll get back in line for the car stuff.”

“Shouldn’t we do it all now?”

“No, you should probably go and get the test over with. As soon as you start taking it, I’ll grab another number, that way by the time you’re all done, it will probably be time for us to go up to the counter again.”

He nodded, absentmindedly, his thought on the papers in front of him and on the upcoming test.

They stood in line another 10 minutes before they could pay for the test. The woman who took their money showed William the bank of computer terminals and had him choose one. As soon as he was seated, she came over and explained to him what to do. She smiled at Elizabeth as she walked back behind the counter, “Don’t worry, he’ll do fine,” she said.

“I know.”

Buffy went to get another number and to wait until William was done with the test.

Ten minutes later he came back around the partition. He looked nervous, as he came and took a seat beside her.

“How’d you do?” she asked.

“Don’t know yet. I think I did okay.”

“I think so, too, just…”

“William Worthington,” called the woman behind the counter.

They got up and went to the counter.

“Congratulations, you passed your permit test,” said the woman, smiling, “in fact, you aced it. You didn’t miss any!”

William let out a sigh of relief, “Whew!”

Buffy reached over and gave him a kiss on the cheek, “I knew you would,” she whispered.

He put his arm around her, giving her a squeeze and looked at her, smiling.

“You ready for your picture?” asked the woman, “sign this first. Good. Now, go sit down over there,” she said, motioning him to a chair in front of a blue backdrop.

“Okay, ready, set…” Click went the camera, and it was done.

A few minutes later, William was the proud owner of a new driver’s permit. And he did look mighty proud of himself, Buffy thought as she watched him turning over the permit in his hands, as they waited to be called again.

Part 2 of ‘Fun at the DMV,’ was not so much…well, fun. Buffy had to practically strong-arm the clerk, to get her to believe that indeed, William Worthington did have insurance coverage for the DeSoto, only they didn’t yet have a card to prove it.

“Well, why don’t you just come back with the card next week?” the girl had asked.

“Because we want to get the car plated today. And why don’t you just call this number if you need proof?” Buffy had suggested, none-too-kindly.

“We aren’t allowed to make phone calls to prove if you’ve got insurance, that’s what an insurance card is for.”

“But he does have insurance, and we should be able to get plates today. I have the policy number, the verification number, even! Surely, there’s got to be some way we can do this!”

And so it went back and forth for a number of minutes.

William pulled gently on her arm, “Come on Elizabeth, we can just come back after the card comes.”

She shook his arm off, “No, we shouldn’t need the card, if we’ve got the number and our insurance agent said you’re insured today.”

Finally, the clerk’s supervisor came over and talked to Buffy and after a few mis ofs of discussion and one phone call, they were able to plate and register the car.

Another clerk did have to come outside to take a look at the actual car, verify the VIN number, and do some quick, visual safety checks.

Buffy held her breath while the VIN number was cross-referenced with the DMV’s databanks. Silently, she thanked Willow, when it all checked out fine.

By the time they finally left the DMV, it was almost 11:30am. They’d been there a little more than 2 hours. Pretty par for the course. Buffy had to admit that if they hadn’t gotten there as early as they had, they probably wouldn’t have seen the light of day until it was late afternoon. The last time she’d looked up at the sign, it had been on number 39, but when she went by the ticket thing-y, the next number was 84. That would have been a really, really long wait!

Buffy opened up purse and took out a small screwdriver that was attached to a Swiss army knife that she carried, “Here,” she said, handing him the new plate, “maybe we should change the plate, before some policeman notices that the date on it is about 6 years old.”

He looked the Swiss army knife, “Interesting contraption,” he said, taking it from her.

“Former Girl Scout, here,” she said.

He wasn’t sure what that was, but he imagined that if it meant that Elizabeth was always prepared, then he believed it. He knew that the only reason that he was standing there right now with a new license plate and registration was because of her insistence and determination in the face of a ‘clerk,’ who didn’t want to go the distance necessary.

For that matter, the only reason he was here, with her, and not stuck in some mental ward was because of her, too.

He attached the new plate, and she gave him the sticker that said, ‘08’ to affix to the little square after the ’20.’

“There, all done,” he said, pushing the screwdriver back into it’s slot in her gadget, “now, when can I start learning to drive?”

END CHAPTER 95


Okay, having just been I.M.’ing my Beta Judy, and she had suggested that I totally cut the DMV and just have Willow give William a license so that he can just learn to drive. I guess my point was that it’s a slice of real life having to do these things he’s never done (as William) and his license would have been expired by a couple of years anyway…so he might have had to take some sort oft. t.

However, I did see her point, economy of words, etc. So…if you yawned through this, blame me (I know…you would anyway!) :)

So, an informal poll…

DMV, what a hoot!

or

DMV, should’ve canned it!

Let me know, guys!