Saccharine

C₂H₆0_2. Ethylene glycol. A sugar related to C₂H₄0₂, the smallest known molecular sweetie called glycolaldehyde, a life-building essential found in a gas cloud in the Milky Way. No wonder my head hurts from anti-freeze (glycol) leaking into the passenger cabin of my beater car: the dust in my mind expands as a drive. This time to Austin, Minnesota, near the Iowa border. Ninety minutes into the journey (fifteen miles from destination) I realize I don't want what waits for me there. I stop in a place named for blossoming open fields and call the owner. I tell him my decision, eat my lunch (in the sugar cabin), and make a u-turn. Sweet-plugged ears or not, I hear scraping on the pavement. Park again and walk around. The muffler hangs off the rear. I cruise to a business selling repaired salvaged autos across from a grain elevator. "Can you fix this," I ask. Late Friday afternoon, the mechanic left early, still a body man remains. I follow him around back where he reaches under a truck (that probably hit a tree) and gathers hanger bushings (huh?). "Hard to get off old ones," he says. The scavenge works. He discusses a price for the job with the shop manager who hand-writes an invoice. I note the list of vehicles for sale posted on the wall. "An old dry erase board," he says, "Nothing fancy in the small town we live in." Not a one suits me. I tell them my story. "You drove all the way down just to turn around?" Well, um, no, not really, but I am under the influence of life building compounds. And I like candy. A vending machine near the shop's door has a selection of three. It accepts quarters. I have dimes.