CarWobble

Frank's right foot itched. He yearned to press down hard on the gas and get there quicker, so that he could put a swift end to this miserable frustration. The whole damn thing had been in his grasp for one brief moment, but then it had slipped through his fingers, back into the abyss. Gone forever.

As he drove past the carwash, Frank could feel his shirt still sticking to his back from the clammy effort he had made. The back of his throat still burned from the cursing.

Passing the Air & Water station, Frank considered that he should be able to just let it go. But he couldn't, because the whole thing had left him angry. It wasn't about the money, dammit, it was the principle. Oh, and the money. Specifically, it was about Frank's loose change, which had slipped from his pocket and down the gap between his chair and rim of his car door. He could see it, but try as he might (and he had...) there was no retrieving it.

Berating car manufacturers for not making those gaps a bit wider, his tailor for not making his pockets deeper, and God for not making his fingers longer, Frank had wasted about 3 minutes trying in vain to dislodge about £1.67 from it's new hiding place amongst a graveyard of fluffy boiled sweets and yellowing parking tickets.

After cursing Ford, George Whatsit Gentleman's Outfitters, and every member of the Holy Trinity, Frank cursed himself. Not for losing the money - that could have happened to anyone, and wasn't really his fault - but for not remembering earlier the latest service offered at his local petrol station.

Now he'd remembered though, everything would be OK. Frank drove his Ford into the CarWobble, which looked a bit like a carwash except that the outer walls were pink and fluffy. He closed his car door, sensibly taking his can of cola and bag of pork scratchings with him, and walked through to the adjoining relaxation room.

He sat down in the fluffy pink vibrating massage chair, inserted his £5, and hit the big red button. As Frank's massage chair started wobbling, a set of four clamps held the wheels of his Ford to the ramp next door. With the hum of hydraulics, the car lifted from the floor, and turned gently 180 degrees until it was upside down. Next, the whole apparatus began to shake, car and owner wobbling together in a lovely separate synchronicity.

After a couple of minutes, the vibrating stopped, and a much more relaxed Frank sauntered over to his inverted vehicle. Collected on the roof were several polo mints, about £2.14 in change, those opera tickets he'd turned the house upside down for last month, and a pair of underpants which Frank swore he'd never seen before in his life.

He collected up the various possessions into the neat pink wobblebag, and returned to the safe distance of his vibrating chair. Pressing the red button again, the car gently righted, and the clamps released.

Yes, it had cost Frank £5 to gain £2.14 and a pair of manky old underpants, but it had been worth it.