The Mysterious Event in the Lincoln Mark V.

RAY: This puzzler came from a fellow named Lee Hull, from Westfield, Indiana. Pay attention, because there are lots of hints and obfuscations. None of them are mine; they're all Lee's. He did an admirable job! Here it is:

After an enjoyable Saturday of tooling around town in my old Lincoln Mark V, listening to Car Talk and running errands, my wife and I were preparing for bed. I said to her, 'I saw something happen today that I've not seen in probably ten years.'

'That's great, honey! Good night,' she said, rolling over. But I was persistent.

'You know, now that I think about it,' I said. 'I've only seen this happen maybe four or five times in my life and every time, I've been on the road, driving.'

I could tell that her snoring was faked. I went on: 'In fact, I knew when I left the house this morning that it was going to happen, I just didn't know exactly where.' She opened one eye to give me an intimidating stare. 'It happened just as we were passing over the Main Street bridge.' ('Blatant obfuscation,' Lee writes.)

'Well, why didn't you say something?' she asked.

'Oh, you're old enough to have seen it a few times yourself, I bet. It really isn't that exciting.'

Now I had her full attention. But still, I wouldn't tell her what I'd seen. Come to think of it, it's happened a few times and I didn't even notice it, myself. The sad thing is, I'm pretty sure our son will never see it happen, and most kids today never will, either.

What happened that day?

Think you know? Drop Ray a note!

[ Car Talk Puzzler ]