Midnight Ride

One night Garfield was curled up in his bed asleep, having a dream. The dream balloon over his head expanded until it took up the full panel. It showed Garfield curled up on a rug in the living room in the middle of the night, when he woke up.

"Huh? Wha?" he looked around, "What is it?" He stood up and said, "I feel like there's something I should be doing, but what is it?"

He walked through the house but couldn't figure it out. Upon returning to the living room he spotted something glistening in the dark. Jon's car keys on the coffee table.

"Hotcha!" Garfield exclaimed as he snatched them up, "This kitty's going for a ride."

Garfield spent five minutes in the driver's seat of Jon's car with the ignition on, playing with the power seat controls until he had the seat pushed forward enough that he could both reach the steering wheel, and the pedals.

"I've seen Jon do this hundreds of times, there shouldn't be anything to it," Garfield said. "Let's see, where's the gear shift?"

He was trying to figure out which was the gear shift and which lever operated the windshield wipers, when he accidentally pressed the gear shift lever from park to reverse. The engine roared as Garfield backed the car out of the garage and clear out into the street before he figured it out and put it in drive. The car jerked to a momentary pause with a huge crunching noise that worried the fat cat that something had broken, then it started moving forward and he was driving down the block.

"This is neat!" Garfield exclaimed, "I wonder how come Jon never let me drive before?"

At that time of the night there wasn't much traffic though there were some parked cars on both sides of the street, as well as trash cans put out for the garbage men the next day, some of which either went flying, or got pancaked under the tires of Jon's car.

"Oops," Garfield said as he looked back and saw two galvanized cans flattened in the street.

Up ahead Garfield saw something in the headlights. He realized it was a dog out running loose. The dog saw the car and Garfield could hear it yipping as it decided to chase the car. Garfield grinned fiendishly as an idea came to him, and he buried the accelerator as he in turn chased the dog, who upon realizing it was now the prey, ran around the street in circles yipping and whining as it tried to get away from the car.

"Hey, this is fun!" Garfield realized. He chased the dog up and down the street for a couple blocks before it finally darted out of the road and ran up the stairs to a dark house.

"Aw shucks, I was hoping to reel it in and weigh it," Garfield chuckled to himself.

At night Garfield realized he could see the street lights for five straight blocks, much easier to pay attention to than during the daytime.

"I wonder where all there is to go at night in this town?" he mused as he followed the traffic lights.

His eyes lit up in response to the bright neon lights in the downtown area.

"There are all night movies!" he announced with glee. "There are late night diners! There are 24-hour convenience stores full of candy and soda and chips!"

Up ahead he saw an arrow sign leading to a fast food restaurant with drive-thru. Garfield pulled the car into the lane up to the drive-thru window and told the very confused teenager there, "I'd like 20 double bacon cheeseburgers and a diet soda to go, please."

"This is cool!" Garfield was ecstatic as he drove along in the night, "this is so much fun! I can do the grocery shopping from now on and get everything I want."

The whir of a siren and the sight of red and blue flashing lights in the rear view mirror brought Garfield's good time to an end and sent an icy shiver down his spine.

"I'm in big trouble," he realized.

"Alright, pull over to the side!" the cop said on his radio.

"Oh boy," Garfield said with a panicked look in his eyes.

He did as he was told, the cop got out of the car and walked over to Jon's car.

"Well, you see, officer," Garfield tried to explain, "My ID is back home on my flea collar, and...and..."

"Hu?" Garfield half snored as he woke up. He sat up in his bed and looked around.

"Whoa. What a dream," he said in relief.

But then...he got an idea.

The next day Garfield sat on the floor at Jon's feet with a huge, hopeful grin on his face while Jon looked over the flyer Garfield had shown him.

Jon looked to the side and thought to the 4th wall with a very confused look on his face, "Surely there has to be a logical explanation why Garfield wants a Barbie jeep for his birthday."