By: Matthew Yang
Once upon a time, there were two cars who lived in a garage in a two-story house owned by a man named Frank. The gasoline car’s name was Jerry and the electric car’s name was Tom. Jerry was 18 years old, but Tom was only two years old. Tom did not like Jerry and always complained about the way he smelled. Jerry wondered why Tom was so quiet when he ran. Although Tom was willing to drive Frank around, Jerry was Frank’s old friend and was always the favorite.
One day, Frank asked Jerry to take him to a beautiful park nearby. When Jerry started, Tom noticed that a plume of black smoke came out of his tail. Frank coughed badly for quite a while. When they reached the park, ducks quacked away and didn’t like to be around them. Jerry’s best duck friend, Shelly, told him that his smell was too much for her to bear. Shelly didn’t bother to even come close to Jerry the whole time he was there. After Jerry came home, Tom found that Jerry’s smell was much worse than before. Jerry was sad that he lost his best friend, Shelly, and cried.
A week later, Frank wanted Jerry to take him to the park again. Jerry told Frank that he was very hungry and couldn’t move. Frank went to the nearby gas station and brought home enough gas to fill his car. However, Jerry was still unable to start. He told Frank that he was not feeling well. Frank shook his head and took Tom to the park instead. Tom started immediately and carried Frank to the park quickly and quietly. Jerry felt upset that he was left behind. The ducks were very happy to see Tom because he was not smelly at all. Tom made friends with them. The ducks asked why Jerry didn’t come. They were very sad to hear that he was sick. Jerry spent the whole day by himself and felt very lonely.
When Tom and Frank came home, Frank made the hard decision to fix Jerry. Jerry was scared that he would never be able to run again, but he understood that surgery was his last hope. He closed his eyes and waited for the tough moment. Frank took out Jerry’s engine, gas tank, coolant compartment, radiator, and all of his wires and replaced them with a brushless electric forklift motor, a 12-volt lead-acid charging board, a fuse, an electric A/C system, and several large spools of insulated copper wiring. He plugged Jerry’s new power adapter into its charging port. After a few hours, Jerry woke up and was surprised to see that Frank and Tom were cheering him! He couldn’t believe his eyes!
Jerry felt strong and new again. He believed that he survived because of magic. He was amazed at how quiet he had become. He did not need gas like he had before. Even better, he didn’t smell bad anymore! Shelly was so happy to see him in the park again. She gave him a big hug and told him that he was as clean as Tom. Tom and Jerry became good friends and lived happily together.