The Genesis
Peter had waited three fourths of a year for this day. He hadn't necessarily planned it but he wanted it to happen and, although he was still bantam, he had the final say as to when the event would happen. And, true to form, he announced the intention to herald his arrival at the most inopportune time. His mother was many kilometres from the hospital where his siblings were born, and so the Mother, Father, and elder yet still infant brothers boarded their rattly old tin lizzie (a box-shaped Model-A Ford motorcar) which then gasped it's way over the hills to the nearest maternity hospital. A country stream and a gumboot aided in providing a refreshing drink to the car's overheated radiator at the crest of the first hill, a process which was repeated twice more before the anxious parents reached the seaside village where the hospital was located.
An inquiry at the local tavern revealed the horrifying news that the hospital could be found at the top of yet another hill, but this time the car showed no resistance to the added labour (no pun intended.)
Upon arrival, the expectant Mum was almost immediately assisted into the delivery room and within minutes Peter was demanding the first meal of his life-long insatiable appetite.
His Dad was quick to remind his Mum of the work that still awaited her at home and consequently a return journey back over the hills was commenced within an hour or so.
Rattling home in the dark, rain now pelting the windscreen, the utmost care was taken as Mum, Dad, newborn Peter and his two infant siblings journeyed homeward. Another route would have been chosen, if they had only known that the rain had washed away a section of the poorly sealed road ahead. But as they didn't know, and as the hole appeared rather suddenly, it was perhaps inevitable that the car land in it. Now we are not talking about a little pothole the size of the newborn Peter. This hole was so large that the car was completely inverted and landed in the bottom of the chasm, upside-down -- with the wheels level with the road above and the vehicle disappearing in the mud and water below. This was long before the advent of seat-belts and child safety restraints, and the family flew around the car, landing in a heap on the canvas padded roof. Only through his Mum holding Peter so closely was he spared a flight through the window. Miraculously, none were hurt in the tumble and a strange twist of Fate enabled their escape from the inverted vehicle: this car had the battery located under the floor and Peter's Dad had, a few hours earlier, replaced the battery. But because Peter had cued his Mother that he could not wait much longer to be born, his Dad had not had an opportunity to screw the floorboards back in place. This meant that when the car came to rest downside-up in the hole, the floorboards fell away leaving an escape route. Providence provided the circumstance; Opportunity revealed the occasion, Necessity motivated the action and, sadly, Coincidence received the credit. The lesson for Peter was not finished yet.
-- Lionel Hartley, Not Finished Yet -- Chronicles in the Life of Peter Blank
"This serial saga, although novel, is not a novel. It is merely a series of true-life episodes highlighting the extraordinary working of an extraordinary God in a very ordinary life. Each episode contained a lesson for Peter Blank, a lesson we can all learn, from a lesson-book life that is not finished yet."
As first appeared in FreEzine Magazine July 2000 ff
