"Why did you turn off the music?" Alexis bellowed from the back seat.
"I'm trying to hear a sound," I replied. I had heard a faint thumping sound coming from the rear passenger side of my car. I was relatively certain that it was ice and snow that had accumulated in the wheel well, but if I was dragging a dead moose around from my tail pipe, I wanted to figure it out.
"What sound?" Alexis asked.
"A sound the car is making," I replied. I still hadn't managed to hear it very well. You know, what with all of the CONSTANT CHATTER FROM THE BACK SEAT.
"I don't hear anything," Alexis replied.
"Me either," I told her. "It might be because I can't hear anything but you, though," I threw in.
"See! There's no sound," she said. "Can you turn the music back on?" Alexis asked.
"After I figure out what that sound is, I will," I told her.
"What sound?" she asked.
I blinked. And again.
"Alexis, the car is making a sound and I need to hear it. Give me just a second," I told her between clenched teeth.
"I don't hear any sound," she reported.
I started to look around for Abbot and Costello. Maybe they were stuck in my wheel well.
"Shhh . . ." I told Alexis.
"Why?" she asked.
"I'm trying to listen to the car," I replied. I was pretty sure we had been having the exact same conversation for her entire life by that point.
And we had.
"Why are you trying to listen to the car?" she asked. If she hadn't been so genuinely curious, I would have thought she was trying to gnaw a hole in my brain.
"The. car. is. making. a. sound. Can you be super duper quiet for just a second so I can figure out what it is?" I asked.
"OK," she replied. She paused for a moment then continued, "Can you turn the radio back on?"
On and on we went. I finally decided it was indeed snow and ice in the wheel well that was causing the noise, but not before my gray hair count quadrupled.
