The Velveteen Toyota

Damn.

So I've been trying to sell 'Turo on Craigslist for almost a week now. By now, I've gotten amazingly good at doing the Craigslist Seller's Dance. How to post, how to field phone calls and emails, how to host potential buyers. Unfortunately, I'm not yet good at taking the shit people talk about my friend in some way other than personal.

Whenever someone looks at 'Turo's cosmetic faults, finds a fictitious knocking when they test drive him or looks at him in an unkind way I rankle. I want to shout "HOW DARE YOU! DON'T YOU KNOW HE'S MY FRIEND AND IT'S KILLING ME TO SELL HIM!"

But doing that would guarantee that he's going to be sold for scrap. So I bite my tongue and take their insults, while preparing myself to take a pittance for the title to my good friend.

The part that kills me is that I'm starting to agree with these idiots. I'm starting to realize just how much of 'Turo is sentimental value, just how much of his value is tied up in the circumstances surrounding his life with me.

I'm starting to see how much I abused him. I thought he was indestructible, so I treated him as such. I thought I'd drive him until he could go no longer, so I treated him as such. And now, at the end all I can think about is the thirty pieces of silver at the end of the rainbow.

I can only hope the nursery magic Fairy is kind to him in the end.