And it totally is messy. There's trash and toys and books and clothes, so I thought her sister might have a point. So this past weekend I cleaned the car out, front to back, top to bottom, inside and out.

 

The first thing I noticed is how much better I feel when my car is clean. Logically, I have to acknowledge that having a clean car has nothing whatsoever to do with any other aspect of my life, but at the same time there's something emotionally satisfying about driving a clean car. It's almost spiritual.

 

The second thing I realized while driving my clean car was that, what the little neighbor girl might be upset about every day might have nothing to do with my car, and I was only acting on the word of a kindergartener.

 

But then, when I picked them up the next day, she was almost giddy. She practically skipped to the car. It was nice, but confusing. I've seen ten year olds laugh and skip before, but never just at the thought of riding in a clean car. The only thing I could think was that she realized the power she had, at ten years old, to get a grown man to do something he may not otherwise have done, and for her that realization may have been intoxicating. It may even have occurred to her that, as a female, she would probably be able to do that for the rest of her life.

 

The other possibility is that her moods, good and bad, have very little to do with me, but that, of course, is ludicrous.

 

Women do tend to swing wildly back and forth, and freak out over every little thing. I think about those commercials for the big luxury cars that go bouncing up and down over rocky roads, while the person inside rides in perpetual comfort, listening to classical music and sipping tea. In a way, this is what it's like being a guy, because no matter what gets thrown at us we still just keep going along, smooth and steady. With women, it seems like, it's just the opposite: Driving down flat, straight, wide open roads, they hit one little rise in the pavement and they fly up out of their seats.

 

I'm not complaining. For me that would be like complaining about the weather or the fact that the sun goes down at night. And besides, seeing a woman happy and laughing almost makes up for all the freaking out.

 

Almost.