Cars

Finally, Elena got a car that could run. Before that, we have been sad witnesses to the efforts of two old beasts Jack kept, motionless, at the front door. Their only service, was apparently restraining somebody else from parking in front of the house. Every winter morning, they growled and shuddered for a few minutes before falling asleep with a big spurting of smog. Jack talked and occasionally, insulted them, to no avail. Elena took public transport like the kids. I could tell she was going far away because she brought back the smell and seeds of different trees and cities in her shoes.
I Believed at the time that the two old cars were dying, but Eloisa was sure that they have never been alive. We had a long discussion about this while we were in the cages. if this seems silly to you, just imagine what else a reasonable person would do when forced to spend 12 hours a day in a crate in the living room with no other entertainment than background jazz music in the radio and toys that would bore a toddler.
The facts are that cars have the same general structure of animals. They have four short legs, eyes in the front, a belly and a back. You open the head and find convoluted tubes as you find inside the head of a squirrel, although even a car has bigger brains. People jump in their backs as they do with horses. Their butt is big and can be filled with all the trash humans carry around for no reason. Other features are anomalous. The mouth is round and narrow like a fish mouth, and is on the rear. They have also a pair of eyes in the butt, but perhaps they are fake, just like the false eyes of the butterflies in the wings. Cars have a history and go from young to old in no time, however they never grow or gain strenght, they only decay since the moment they are born. Cars cannot regenerate and heal their wounds as animals do and they don't move alone. This is the main point, Eloisa stated, that put cars in the realm of inanimate objects. they cannot move on their own volition. I refuted this argument, reminding her that I've seen cars running against people wishes, causing injuries and deaths. Eloisa still insisted that such events result from human fault, not from the car intentions. Vehicles don't smell like animals and have no plasticity of expression or emotions. they always look the same. But those assertions could also be applied to oysters.
It is not easy, in conclusion, to define life. It well could be the solid wall Eloisa imagines, separating the living from what is merely there, but also, as I believe, a fine gradient of states of being from the rock to the car to the dog, every modest thing with a hidden soul, teeming with intentions and dreams about the world.