The iOttie Easy One Touch 5's Final Ride

The iOttie Easy One Touch 5 arrived in a box that was too big for its britches. It was proud. It had that new-plastic smell, the kind that says 'I will solve your problems if you just press me against a dashboard.' BW watched me open it. She said nothing. That is her way of saying she has seen this before.

I mounted it on the vent. The child was three at the time. She watched the whole thing with the kind of focus she now reserves for coloring books and the cat. The mount held my phone like a mother holding a newborn. It never dropped it once. Not during sharp turns on Stanley Avenue. Not when the Uber passenger asked me to turn up the radio and I fumbled for the knob. The mount stayed. It was the most reliable thing in the car. (The car itself is a 2012 Camry with a transmission that sighs.)

Then the child got older. She started riding in the front with me when BW was driving the other car. The mount became a toy. She would press the release button and watch the arms snap back. Click. Click. Click. The mount never complained. It was designed for that. But it was not designed for what came next.

One afternoon I found it on the floor of the back seat. The child had taken it off the vent. She had found a Sharpie. (She finds them. She always finds them.) The mount had been given a new purpose. It was now a robot with a face drawn on its single button. The arms were drawn as legs. She had also written 'Bob' on the back in something that might be permanent marker. The mount looked up at me from the floor mat. It said nothing.

I put it back on the vent. The writing faced the windshield. For a week I pretended it was a custom decal. Then the passenger said 'Nice mount. Is that supposed to be a face?' I took it off. It sits now in the glove box. Next to the manual for a car I will never read. The mount still works. It knows the child is out there. And every time I open the glove box I see Bob staring at me. And I remember that nothing in this household stays pristine for long. Especially not things that click.

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