It almost went unnoticed as I drove up SW Clay. More to the point, it had, for some strange reason, gone unnoticed by Portland’s stick-on ticket readers. Signs at the curb and on the adjacent ticket dispensing kiosk displayed large number “3’s.” I thought that meant the maximum time allowed to park a car. I was wrong, maybe ‘3’ means weeks, or even months, surely it did not mean hours for this car. Maybe it’ll be three years before the city’s towing company decides its ticket, if it even has one, has expired.The dead, dry leaves that covered the trunk; roof and hood made the car look like a duck blind. That may explain why tow truck drivers hadn’t seen it or hauled it away a long time ago. Besides, those leaves had to have fallen during duck season in 2007. That was 10 months ago; since today is August 15, 2008. In a couple of months duck season begins again. That could push the towing date out another year.

The windows and the car’s surface were also covered with a sticky substance, no doubt from the same tree that dropped the leaves. It was so coated with this stuff that I could barely see inside. Fortunately, from what I could discern, no one lives there. I know a picture is worth a 1,000 words, so I’ll keep my comments brief and add a picture. You can fill in the other 900 words.

One question remains. Is this car a police exhibit or a decoy, a squatter’s home, a shrine, a mirage, or just one poor soul of a car that lost its way?

After all these months in obscurity I feel guilty for bringing its condition to a larger audience, not to mention to all those drivers who failed to pay attention to what’s been happening in town. But, I should give them a break, they were all heading west on Clay and likely thinking only about getting out of Dodge.

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