Truly Faultless

Truly Faultless

“This isn’t my fault,” Flora sputtered as the car they were riding in began to do the same.

“Of course it isn’t, the car is old,” soothed Dora.

“If it isn’t your fault, it must be somebody’s,” Pandora said testily from the back seat.

“I wonder who was supposed to take it in for its semi-annual tune-up and repair,” Flora replied tartly.

“It wasn’t my turn, I did it last time!”

“No, you didn’t, you were sick, so I told you I would do it and I did!” Pandora said.

“Something is really wrong!” Flora exclaimed as the vehicle ground to a halt and refused to go despite all her efforts.

“I’ll look under the hood and find out what’s going on!”

Pandora tumbled out of the car. She raised the hood and looked.

“Just as I thought...”

“What? What is it?” Flora and Dora asked.

“Gremlin infestation. I thought we got rid of them!”

“We did, I saw to it personally,” Dora told her.

“We’ve become re-infested then; we will need another fumigation!” Pandora suggested.

“But it’s so expensive,” Dora protested.

“We could just abandon this old thing at the nearest car graveyard,” Flora remarked hopefully.

“Then what? We’ll have no transportation!” Pandora complained.

“We can fly you know!” Flora reminded them.

“But that’s so exhausting!” Dora and Pandora said in unison.

“We’re back where we started from, then?”

“Not quite, I have an idea,” Pandora suggested slyly.

“A bicycle built for three? How novel!”

“Dibs on the center seat,” Pandora sang as she leaped onto the seat in question.

The other two fairies soon found out why she wanted that particular seat when they ended up doing all the legwork. Flora wobbled to a used car lot on rubbery legs and bought a new-to-them used car.