The Overnight Parking Ban

Melanie lived in a small apartment building on Whitlow Street. The first time Lauren arrived to stay over at Melanie’s house it was a Saturday afternoon. She parallel parked between two other cars. She didn’t give much thought to where she would park. She was too enchanted by the new relationship. 

The next morning, Lauren found a fifty dollar parking ticket for overnight parking. The ticket confused her because didn’t know she couldn't park overnight. She looked around and saw that all the other cars on the street had tickets too. She shrugged and put the ticket in her purse. Must be a fluke, she thought. The city couldn't have the parking officers it would need to patrol every street on every night.

Melanie was an EMT driver so she made good money. And she didn’t have any kids. She could pay the tickets. But Lauren had too much pride to ask Melanie to do that. Lauren didn’t want to remind Melanie how broke she was.

By court order, Alton grandparent’s watched him every other Saturday. Those were Lauren's only free nights. So two weeks later, to the day, Lauren stayed over at Melanie’s apartment again. The next morning at 7:50, they shared a long embrace. They stared into each other’s eyes and giggled. Lauren had to leave or she would be late for her job at Wendy’s.

Lauren meandered to her car. She glanced back over her shoulder at Melanie several times before she got there. Each time she looked, Melanie was staring back at her, in the same exact position as she had been the last time. Yes, Lauren thought, this is the one. I am in love. Lauren fumbled for her car keys, almost dropping them. She yanked on the car door, stealing another quick look at Melanie, before opening it.

As Lauren drove away, her eyes were half on the road, half on her lover in the rear view mirror. She tried to stop smiling but couldn’t. As she looked back, she saw that Melanie was also grinning, and making no move to go back inside. Finally, as Lauren turned on to Garvin Road, she had had to focus her entire attention on the road. I’m so in love I am going to start an accident, she thought.

Five minutes later, Lauren jolted the car into park. She reached into the backseat and grabbed her uniform bag. As she started to jog to the restaurant she saw it. The dreaded parking ticket. Another one! Are you kidding me, she thought? She must have been too distracted at Melanie’s house to notice it.

She went straight to the bathroom to get changed into her outfit so she could start her shift on time. Co-workers greeted her along the way. She grunted pleasantries in response. She changed into her uniform and glanced in the mirror to make sure she looked presentable.

Fifty dollars was a lot for Lauren. She was only twenty-one. Alton’s father paid her no child support, and gave her no other kind of help either. He didn’t have anything to do with Alton. Lauren enjoyed working at Wendy’s, but she only made ten dollars an hour. She had applied for higher paying jobs but never got a call back. Having a high school degree would help, but she had had to drop out when she got pregnant.

No, this wasn’t Melanie’s problem. This was the city’s problem. Where do they expect people to park? Melanie didn’t have her own driveway or garage. Her apartment building only provided her with one spot. There was plenty of room to park on the street and she saw plenty of cars parked there. Both when she went inside for the evening, and when she woke up in the morning. Whitlow Street is not a busy street.

She shuffled through her work shift, giving her the least amount of effort to not get in trouble. On most days she hustled.

“Down in the dumps, are we?” her manager Chip asked. He squeezed by her carrying a piping hot, loaded fry basket. She rolled her eyes and went about her business. She was getting her work done and that’s all he needed to know. He had her labor but she wasn’t about to let him into her mind.

That night, after Lauren had put Alton to bed, she told Melanie about the tickets. “I’m not telling you this so you’ll pay them,” she said into her phone. “I’m not looking for a sugar mama. But it’s been bothering me all day.”

Melanie didn’t try to insist, or even offer to pay the ticket, which surprised Lauren. “It seems like I’ve known you much longer than a month,” Melanie said. “I get you. This is a matter of principal.”

“You’re my closest friend right now”, Lauren said. “I had to get it off my chest.”

“Who is your city council member?” Melanie asked, changing the subject.

Lauren didn’t want to admit she didn’t even know what the city council was so she claimed she didn’t remember. After she said goodnight, she went online to do some research. In about five minutes she found the section of the city code that banned overnight parking. There it was, in black and white. “No driver will park a car on any city street for more than ten minutes between the hours of 2:00 AM and 6:00 AM.”

While it didn’t take long for her to find the code, after hours of searching she could not figure out why the ban existed. What was the purpose? She stayed up way too late looking for an answer. She found a few articles talking about overnight parking bans in other cities. All were about how those cities decided to lift the bans. One of the articles was from 1998 by a newspaper in Middletown, Wyoming. Middletown first banned overnight parking in 1949. The reason was to allow better access for emergency vehicles. But Middletown eliminated the ban after a study group found that it was not necessary.

“Cars parked all night have not been a problem,” Middletown police chief Phillips said. “We realized the ban had been in place for all these years for no good reason. Go figure.”

Lauren learned that she lived in District 7 and her city council member was Raymond McCoy. City hall was on her way to Alton’s daycare. She would have half-an-hour first thing in the morning before drop off.

“Mr. McCoy?” she stammered, standing in a doorway. She and Alton were the first ones inside after city hall opened. Few people were around. Alton stood next to her holding her hand and fidgeting side to side.

“The one and the only,” he said. He stood to look down at her with a piercing stare. He was a gigantic man and he was wearing overalls. He was chewing on something.

Raymond McCoy’s size and demeanor intimidated Lauren but she barreled on. She had practiced what she would say in her head a dozen times. She explained that she had received two tickets for overnight parking, which she didn’t even know was a rule. She had done some research and couldn’t figure out the purpose of this rule. As her city council member, was this something he could look into?

When Lauren finished talking Mr. McCoy continued to stare. He paused and spit what looked like a batch sunflower seeds into a trashcan next to him. There was such a long pause that Lauren wasn’t sure if he was even going to talk at all. She looked around and saw a woman staring at them. Should she walk away?

“We have an overnight parking ban because we don’t want to be one of those trash cities like you see on the TV.” Mr. McCoy had a twang that Lauren couldn’t quite place. She didn’t think he had grown up in this city.

“Trash cities?” Lauren felt confused.

“Cars everywhere. Junk. Hoodlums.”

Lauren could tell this conversation wasn’t going to be helpful. The night before, Lauren had prepared for what Mr. McCoy might say. If he was going to defend the ban, she figured he would mention the access needs of emergency vehicles. She had prepared to explain why this wasn’t necessary. She wasn’t prepared for what he was saying and it made her uncomfortable.

“How’d you end up with this little one, anyway?” Mr. McCoy asked, gesturing at Alton without smiling.

“Excuse me?”

“We don’t want people parking anywhere they want, overnight, all night, every night. We want people sleeping in their own beds. Good, clean living.”

She couldn’t believe her ears. He was slut shaming her and wasn’t even trying to be subtle about it. She tried to say something but no sound would escape her lips. She scooped Alton up into her arms, turned heel, and ran out the door. When she got outside, she sat down on a bench. Her whole body was trembling.

“Mama?” Alton asked, looking up at her. He had recently started to learn how to talk in complete sentences. Lauren tried to tell him everything was fine. But before she could speak, tears started pouring down her face. Next thing she knew, there was an arm around her, rubbing her shoulder.

“Don’t listen to that old rooster,” a woman said. Laureen looked up and it was the same woman who had been staring at them inside.

“My name’s Penny,” the woman continued. “McCoy’s a mean son of a gun. I work for the city. We’ve been trying to get him out for twenty years. An election is coming up next month. No one even wants to go against him, though. He knows a lot of people and he’s a good old boy.”

Lauren murmured a thank you and guided Alton away.

“You got spunk, girl” the woman called after her. Lauren waved without saying anything.

Lauren didn’t feel like she had spunk. Her whole life she had stayed away from people like Raymond McCoy. People bigger than her, richer than her, meaner than her. She thought because he was on city council he would listen to her, but she was wrong. Now she felt like a little girl again, Powerless.

“You could run for city council,” Melanie said that night on Facetime..

“Me?” Lauren asked in disbelief.

“Why not? You’ve got spunk.” They both laughed.

But Melanie wasn’t joking. Every time they talked for the next few days she said that Lauren would be great in politics.

“But I’m only twenty-one years old,” Lauren said. “I work at Wendy’s. I’m on welfare. I’m a single mother who was never married.”

“And so what?” Melanie said. “Sure, some people won’t vote for you because they are judgmental. But a lot of people will see your true character. That’s what matters. You don’t need all the votes. You only need more than half.”

With time, Lauren thought more and more about Melanie’s idea. She had always been a nobody. Grew up poor and still was. Her mom didn’t work and she hadn’t seen her dad in five years. Last time she did he called her a loser. People like here didn’t get into politics, she thought. Everyone would laugh at her.

Despite her doubts, she blurted out Melanie’s idea to some of her co-workers at Wendy’s. They did laugh but it was a fun laugh, not a mean laugh. Pretty soon it became a running line.

“Did you know this girl is running for mayor?” Chip asked Flo. Flo was an adorable little old lady who came in every morning for coffee. The workers all loved her friendly demeanor.

“Actually that’s city council,” Lauren said. “Seventh district.” She felt herself blush. It was the first time she had declared herself a candidate.

“You got my vote!” Flo pronounced, pumping her little hand in the air for emphasis.

The next morning, Lauren went to city hall and filed the paperwork she needed to run. She let Melanie spend five-hundred dollars for signs. They showed a large close-up of Lauren smiling. At the bottom they said, “Lauren’s got spunk! Vote Grant for District 7.” She found enough friends and friends of friends to put all her signs in yards and in apartment windows.

On Lauren's next free Saturday, she and Melanie spent eight hours knocking on doors. Melanie picked her up so she wouldn't risk another ticket. Many people took the time to talk to them, which surprised Lauren. They must be curious at the novelty of such a young person running for city council, she figured.

No one asked what her relationship was with Melanie. That was a good thing because they hadn’t agreed on what they would say if someone did. Most people weren’t that interested in the issues. Lauren didn’t get any hard questions. What they all seemed to want to find was who she was, and why she was running for city council.

“I want to get rid of the overnight parking ban,” she replied each time, going on to explain that it served no purpose. Nobody she talked to had heard of it and nobody argued with her.

When only the slightest hint of daylight remained, they made their way to the top of Oak Hill. It was where the biggest houses in the district stood. They were halfway finished with the Oak Hill Road, talking about dinner plans.

“I need a tall Margarita,” Lauren said.

“That sounds scrumptious,” Melanie smiled. “But we can’t quit now. This is the last street in the district."

Lauren smiled and nodded her head. Then she froze. In a yard across the street stood Mr. McCoy, staring at them. He was wearing what looked to be the same set of overalls and was chewing away. Melanie looked at Lauren with concern. She must have been able to sense her anxiety.

“He’s right there,” Lauren whispered. “That horrible man.” The two young women pivoted and walked back to Melanie’s car.

“We can skip these last few houses,” Melanie said. “We’ve done as much as we can.” Lauren looked over her shoulder after she got into the car. McCoy was still staring.

Lauren’s manager gave her off the day of the election. She and Melanie stood outside the ward house holding signs all day. Mr. McCoy stood at the other end of the sidewalk with his own sign. He was wearing overalls, of course. Lauren got used to his staring and chewing. She even stared back a few times. A lot of people stopped to chat with Mr. McCoy and shake his hand on their way in. I guess Penny was right, Lauren thought. He is a good old boy.

At the end of the day, the candidates from all twelve districts went to city hall. They gathered to wait for the city clerk to count the votes. They only allowed candidates inside Lauren said goodnight to Melanie. Lauren was by far the youngest person in the room. As they waited, a stream of the candidates from the other districts approached her to make small talk. They all told her how impressed they were by her running for office, or words along those lines. Penny gave her a cup of coffee and a big hug.

“I didn't know how right I was," Penny said. "You do have spunk."

Lauren didn’t win the election. It wasn’t even close. Mr. McCoy had about three times as many votes as her. She didn’t feel disappointed, though. In fact, she felt relief. It had occurred to her that she had no one to watch Alton on meeting nights, and no money for a babysitter. City council was an unpaid position. But at least some of those people voted for. A unanimous defeat would have been embarrassing.

When the clerk announced how many votes she got, all the other candidates except Mr. McCoy clapped for her. She was the only one who got a round of applause.

The next morning she stopped by city hall again. “I guess it’s time to settle up these tickets,” she told Penny.

“We can set these aside,” Penny said. “An honest mistake.”

“I got those tickets fair and square,” Lauren said. “I don’t like the overnight parking ban but the law’s the law. Let me pay them.”

But Penny refused to take Lauren’s money. “I am the only person in city hall who handles parking tickets,” she winked. “You go on and get as many of them as you darn please. You earned them.”

When Lauren got home she had a text from Melanie saying, “you’ll never believe it!” There was a link to a local newspaper article about Lauren’s run for city council.The article had a quote from Lauren about why she decided to run. Underneath that, there was a quote from Raymond McCoy.

“Lauren Grant ran an honorable and hard-fought race,” he said. “This old boy ain’t gonna be around forever. I often worry that the next generation doesn't seem too interested in public service. It's great to see a youngster like her make a go of it. I'm proud of her."

Lauren beamed.