Nice and Ferocious

Ian wishes to hear a unique story every night; in addition to the book that I read, once the lights go out, he wants me to tell him "a story I've never heard before." This is no small task - kind of like Arabian Nights. But I figured one way of telling a series of stories that would teach a lesson while also letting me talk about a subject I know: I created two characters who are trucks named Nice and Ferocious, and, as their names would imply, the represent very different approaches to The Road. The beauty of it for me is that, in my 70-mile daily commute, I accumulate all kinds of stories about rude drivers, and find ways of punishing them in my stories - sometimes drawing on known real-life morality tales where somebody's wreckless driving catches up with them. For anyone who knows "Highlights for Children," Nice and Ferocious are the Goofus and Gallant of the world of trucks, with similar fates emerging from their respective virtues and vices.

[Evenetually, I added other characters with somewhat fewer redeeming qualities than Ferocious. Ferocious's primary flaw is hubris rather than malice, and in fact he is friends with Nice in spite of his relentless feelings of competition toward his guileless colleague. In fact, he ends each story having learned the value of safe driving from Nice and resolved to emulate him in the future. But I needed more thoroughly villanous truck-characters as well, so over time I introduced Atrocious, among others. But Nice and Ferocious are the classic stand-by's of the series. ]

What's really great about Nice and Ferocious, though, is that the boys enjoy the stories so much. And now that Ive genuinely run out of bad-driver-story material, in spite of living in the heartland of Rude Driver Country, they will ask me to replay existing stories, and they'll turn out to know the plots better than I do.

A typical case is the Contest story. The contest story is one in which the American Trucking Society tells Nice and Ferocious that they have been selected for a contest, without telling them any details about the competition. Neither party asks about the contest's criteria - Nice because he doesn't "do" contests - he just focuses on safe driving, and Ferocious because he just assumes that all contests are races, in which his New England-quality cutting off, blindsiding, horn-abuse, high-beam-abuse, and intimidation are all perfectly respectable means toward the end of arriving at the finish line ahead of all other traffic. So they drive in their very distinctive ways - Ferocious acting like a Bostonian driver on steroids, and Nice showing plenty of courtesy to all other drives. Only at the end of this contest do Nice and Ferocious discover that the competition was really about safety and not speed, to Ferocious's astonished chagrin and Nice's unwitting gratification.

One time, at the beginning of Sunday school, the teacher asked the children if their parents ever tell them stories at home. Ian's hand shot up at once.

"Yes, Ian?"

"My Daddy tells us [Bible] stories and stories about two trucks named Nice and Ferocious."

They clearly understand that the Bible stories are more important. But they listen in wrapped attention to the twists and turns that invariably turn Ferocious's arrogant abuse against him and prove to Nice that his politeness and prudence pay off in ways that nobody could have expected.

(2007 to present)