The trip to the airport to pick up Little Molly’s grandma seemed endless to Molly as she peered out the window at the barren land on each side the highway. She stared intently at a tall rusted structure in the middle of a weed filled field. “Daddy what’s that ugly looking thing over there by that big black tank?”

“Little Molly, that’s an old oil derrick from long years ago before we became the United States of Utopia which freed us from dependency on oil.”  

“Oh,” Little Molly said. Putting her index finger beside her cheek, she looked back at the derrick as it faded from view. “Daddy, why are we going so slow? Can’t you drive faster? I’m tired of this trip.”

“No, I have to drive this speed to conserve the batteries in the car. It’s several miles to a charging station and if the batteries go dead we’re stuck out here until someone comes long.”

“Oh,” Little Molly said again. After much thought, Little Molly asked, “If the batteries go dead couldn’t we get someone to pull us to the charging place with a truck like we used to have?”

“Honey, we don’t use trucks anymore. They spew CO2 into the air and they were ruining the planet with their exhaust.”

“Oh,” was the reply. “Daddy, why aren’t there any trees out here?”

“I think the absence of trees is linked to pollution, Little Molly. Now daddy has to pay attention to driving so the batteries won’t run down.”

Tired of looking out of the car window, Little Molly asked, “Daddy, doesn’t this car have an engine that runs on gasoline?”

Exasperated at his daughter’s constant talking, Marvin Dimwiddy looked into the rearview mirror at her. Molly looked at him and said, “Well doesn’t it?”

“Oh, Molly for Pete’s sake, of course it does.”

“I thought you said that it would charge the batteries and make the car go while it was charging them.”

Marvin sighed and said, “Little Molly, it would operate the car and charge the batteries if it would run.”

“Why won’t it run? Is it broken?”

“No, it isn’t broken. It’s gas tank is empty.”

“Why is it empty, daddy? Did you forget to fill it up?”

“Molly will you be quiet and so I can drive. You wouldn’t understand if I told you.”

“You forgot to fill it, didn’t you?” When her daddy didn’t answer, Molly piped up again. “Well, didn’t you?”

“No, I didn’t forget. There isn’t any gasoline in our town.”

“Why not, daddy, we used to buy gasoline there.”

“The station closed down.” Marvin hoped his daughter would quit asking questions, but he wouldn’t bet that she would.

A few minutes later his hopes were dashed when Molly asked, “Why did it close down?”

“Molly, why are you asking all these questions? At your age, I don’t think you would understand.”

“Well, daddy, I heard that a government agency was going to shut all the stations whose owners couldn’t replace underground tanks. Is that what happened to that place, daddy? Did the EPA shut it down?”

Marvin Dimwiddy jerked his head and eyes to the rearview mirror so quickly he made his neck pop.  He said sharply, “How do you know about he EPA? Besides you don’t know what it is anyway?”

“I do too. It’s the Environmental Protection Agency and it tells people what they can and can’t do with their property. I don’t think that’s right.”

Not knowing how to stop his daughter’s chatter, he decided to trap her and hopefully she would be quiet for the rest of the trip. “What makes you think it isn’t right for the EPA to control how property is used?” (To be continued.)

© 07-03-2008 DEC