Ernie had told his pal, Dennis, that he thought his engine had a slight miss. He was going to start with the easy thing first and check his spark plug wires. He wanted to make sure he didn't lose his balance so he took a good grip on the radiator. Then he reached back to check the wires.

Dennis noticed some things flying through the air and land in the yard. He moseyed on over and took a look. They looked like fingers. He thought about that for a bit before he asked Ernie, "Hey, Ern, check your hands and see if your fingers are all there".

Ernie looked at Dennis like he was some kind of twit. He looked at his right hand and the fingers were all there. He looked at his left hand and cried out, "Ain't got no fingers on this hand. They got cut off by the fan".

"Well, they is over here on the lawn", Dennis told him.

"Well, pick 'em up and get me to the emergency room. Maybe they can save 'em".

Dennis got out his hankie, which he'd used, and decided to put them in there. He didn't want to touch the fingers so he put the hankie on the ground and pushed the fingers onto it with his foot.

In the ambulance, on the way to the ER, Ernie said, "We gotta come up with a story. Man, this is embarrassin'. I don't need no one laughin' at me".

Dennis was trying his darndest not to laugh out loud. This was the funniest things he'd seen Ernie do.

The ER doctor asked what happened but wasn't really listening. He looked at the fingers, the hand and the hankie. He felt he had to be honest with the patient.

"I can sew them back on but this handkerchief is so germ-laden I can't see them healing".

"Well, Doc, I want to save the fingers some way. You go on and sew 'em right back on. If they don't take You can take 'em off again and put 'em in a jar with some a that form a stuff you guys have. I'll keep 'em as a trophy thing", Ernie told the doctor.

"Hey, Dennis, did you turn the engine off? Gas ain't cheap, you know".

"Yea, I did. You owe for a new snot rag, you know. Hah, I was just thinkin'. You ain't doin' no more high fives. You gonna be doing high one".

"Hate to interrupt", the doctor said, "but I have a finger left over".