Bed Slide

Jose and Jon had tied it down good. The ropes went through the windows and around and around again. No one could accuse them of laziness.  Stupid yes, lazy no. The 1977 Hornet was way past its prime by 20 years and a total rust bucket. They had just enough gas to get there and get back. Home was a shadowy thing at best for these two grifters, so anyplace that offered a flop for the night was taken seriously, even if they had to bring their own bed. In the morning they could worry about how they would get the gas money to return to La Casa Encendida and win the Grand Prize for Best Poem of 1999.
Jose was not nervous as he knew La Toya and she was in charge of ballot counting. Lovely La Toya, servile and deferential to his every whim, she would help him win and bring home the trophy, not to mention the cash prize of five thousand dollars. Jose and Jon could live a few good months on it.
And home? That could wait. For now they had to concentrate on just getting there with the bed. The ropes they had found were old and degraded from the sun. These ropes were almost dust. Jose had noticed this but did not want to hurt Jon's fragile feelings so he did his best to wench down the mattress to the roof and now it was starting to slip down the back of the ancient Hornet. It was a perfect slide just made for the bed to slip out onto the freeway. Jon sighed, "We lost another one".  At this rate they would never get to sleep.