Mondegreen - a short story

Mondegreen (Fiction 101 Series) 

On an arid Saturday, after Mercy finished brushing her horse, she filled her garage with a static-filled song from the seventies as she worked on her Harley. She sang along, “Excuse me while I kiss this guy,” she teased the passing neighbor’s husband.

He just shook his head.

The wife wasn’t thrilled and snapped a correction, “It’s ‘the sky,’ you stupid girl. Hendrix used to lean in – on the stage.” She pointed at her, then snatched her husband’s arm.

Mercy rolled her eyes. She saw the world as a better place when she applied what she called Mercy’s Rules to Life.

(From Mercy, Chapter Twelve of Hawktown, The Blank)

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 A mondegreen is a mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase - most commonly a song lyric or poem - that results in a new, similar-sounding phrase that makes some kind of sense to the listener. Unlike simple gibberish, a true mondegreen is a plausible-sounding substitute that often tells a completely different, sometimes humorous, story than the original. (Wikipedia)