Smart Car
by Doug Hawley
8: Auto Bio
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Duke and Carl/a agreed that
it is time that you should hear Sheila’s
story – that’s me. Quite a bit of my
tale came out in smart car 7, so I’ll mostly
write about other things.
One of the things that I didn’t talk about
too much in my interview with Carl/a is my
relationship with Duke. I think that we could be
in love, but I don’t want to rush into
anything. I’m still seeing a Lake Oswego
city counselor, but I’ve never leveled with
him about my secret identity as Rogue. Another
awkward aspect of our relationship is that he’s
never been physical with me. I’m not judging,
but it makes me wonder if he’s hiding
something from me and maybe even from himself. My
understanding is that Duke still has a rather
kinky relationship with someone called Jane. I
don’t know if he’s interested in her,
or just their games. If he’s addicted to
kink, we may not work out, but I’m hopeful.
One thing that we’ve both noticed is that we
have grown into much better adults than we were
teens in high school. Duke went from nerd to stud,
and is a top mathematical consultant. I was not
quite anorexic in high school, but I was much too
thin from trying to attain some impossible ideal.
I’m both healthier, and if I’m to
believe my men friends, much more attractive now
that I’ve got curves. In an odd twist, my
part time government transportation job has aided
the smart car innovations that have cut
automotive accidents to near zero.
Duke’s one facet that I would really like to
change about him is his lack of reading.
Ironically with all of the writing that he has
done under his penname, Doug Hawley, he doesn’t
read anything besides newspapers, and wastes
hours watching anime and science fiction on TV.
He claims that he read enough in school to last a
lifetime. On the plus side, anyone can write
anything about him without him finding out. I
should have dished more about him in smart car 7.
If you have followed the smart car series you
know that I’ve got an antique Dodge
Challenger. It is like the car General Lee in the
TV show “Dukes Of Hazzard” from around
a hundred years ago, but it doesn’t have a
hundred lives, or more accurately a hundred stand-ins
like the car on the show, so I take good care of
it. I’m no Civil War buff, so I had called
it Duke after the show. I later changed it to
Deuce. Deuce is for fun when I’m in my
secret identity as Rogue. Usually we are very
discreet and I use its cloaking software most of
the time when we are out and about. When we are
alone on the road, we go a little faster, maybe
even turn off the headlights for added danger. I’ve
also got a few friends that secretly let me use
their property for my shenanigans.
My daily driver is Josie. I use the “girly”
option for her personality, because I mostly hang
out with men at work and in my social life, and I
was overdosing on testosterone. In some ways it
is great, because she knows the best places to
shop and is up on all of the fashions. The
downside is that she can say “You’re
going out in THAT” in the most shaming tone.
Not only is she particular about my appearance,
she won’t go out in public unless she is
thoroughly detailed, and has picked out her
interior and exterior colors to go with whatever
I’m wearing.
Because Josie is always female, Duke’s car
Carl/a was strongly Carl when they were
introduced. I suspect that Carl wants to put
moves on her, but I don’t know if he is her
type. I’m going to keep my eyes on those two.
Every once in awhile Carl tries to talk to Deuce
until he remembers that Deuce can’t talk. He
is always embarrassed if someone notices.
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