The Stafford Challenge, Day 36

Today (1/10 through the challenge!), a narrative sestina. Tough ’cause the word-repeating can distort the story. This one worked out okay. The details are true, mostly. My mechanic could tell what the problem with a car was by smelling the exhaust. VW Magician When I lived in San Francisco in the ’70s I had a mechanic who worked only on Volkswagens. Since I drove a Karmann Ghia, he was my go-to, for sure, and he was definitely the man. I tell ya this man (named Francisco) was sure amazing. To diagnose a mechanical problem, he only had to smell the Ghia! He could do that with all Volkswagens: Beetles, Super Beetles, VW Vans, Squarebacks, Things! And Karmann Ghias, fortunately. Francisco was proud to outfix any mechanic within city limits, I’m sure. His garage shared space with his home: family upstairs, VW shop downstairs with two mechanics. The garage was called Moon Bugs VW Repair. Francisco’s place was the only auto shop I ever took my Ghia. One summer afternoon, the Ghia was acting off, not her sure- footed self, losing power on the San Francisco hills. I was three blocks from my Volkswagen guy, so I just dropped in. The man did his famous smelling mechanic thing but could find nothing mechanically wrong with the Ghia that way. That man worked on my car out on the sidewalk surely three hours. His Volkswagen instincts were stumped, and Francisco kept working even after his mechanics went home. “Francisco!” his wife yelled from upstairs. “Give it a rest, man, dinner!” He said, “Sure, coming!” but worked till the Ghia was fixed. Dark, but saved his rep on VWs. —Draft by Vince Gotera    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.] Not my Karmann Ghia, but mine looked exactly like that, with those bumpers and hub caps. In case anyone is not familiar with how a sestina works: there are six words at the ends of the lines in each sestet and those six words are recycled through the line endings until they have appeared in all possible slots in each sestet (which takes six stanzas); the seventh stanza, called an envoi, contains all six words (usually two per line), with three of the words appearing at line breaks. The six repeated words today are Francisco, mechanic, Volkswagen, Ghia, sure, and man. I fiddle a bit with the words ... really happy with man becoming Karmann at one point; man also transforms into moon at another point; and sure becomes share. Fun! Friends, won’t you comment, please? Love to know what you’re thinking. Ingat, everyone.  ヅ