Sandy Supposes....

To Brake Or Not To Brake...

PROMPT: "To sustain our hopes, we sometimes hear and see selectively focusing on evidence to support our hopes, and ignoring evidence to the contrary." Don't just say yes or no, write a story or poem about someone in a jam and ????? have fun.....

         Lynn breathed deeply of the fresh air, and smiled as she turned up the volume of the car radio. It was a good day to be alive. Just yesterday, her life had veered off on an unknown path. For now, she wanted things to be as they had been. This is why she was driving her mother-in-law's car; a normal, everyday run to and from the pizza shop. Yes, there had been four drivers in the house when they'd decided to order pizza for supper, and, no, she didn't have to go get it; she'd volunteered. She needed to show everyone that she could still take care of business.

         This was the first time she'd ever been behind the wheel of this car,or of one so compact. It felt so light and agile, nothing like the enormous sedans and pick-up trucks she was familiar with. Steering seemed so effortless, yet sensitive; even the slightest movement shifted the car. After a neck-jerking and head-jarring stop at the first stop sign, Lynn appreciated the 'less is more' philosophy of gently applying the brakes. Her usual vehicles required more of a decisive pressure. All in all, she was getting the hang of this Honda Accord.

          Retrieving the pizzas had been easy enough, and they were secure on the passenger seat beside her. Oh, how divine they smelled. Lynn's mouth began salivating; it had been months since she'd sampled a slice.

         It had been maybea fifteen-minute trip when Lynn pulled into her mother-in-law's street level driveway. Lynn was pre-occupied with thoughts of appeasing her growling stomach as her right foot lifted from the accelerator and pressed down in the general direction of the brake pedal; a reflex movement. It took perhaps a few seconds to comprehend that the little car wasn't slowing down, and her foot was wedged tightly between the teeny-tiny accelerator and the itsy-bitsy brake pedal. Her only instinct was to futilely tug and twist the trapped foot; surely there was plenty of time to still stop the car with this foot.

         In real time, the car shot the length of the driveway, and plunged over the suspended edge, hurtling towards the sloped back yard below. Lynn experienced all this as if she were watching an action movie; it didn't seem possible. She could hear the engine revving. She could see the green grass smudging and blurring to meet her. Something, some thumping, jarring music echoed in her brain. Lynn held her breath. Wham! Lynn's head ricocheted off the side window and the tiny car shuddered.

          The frantic free fall had stopped. Ever so slightly, the car was rocking and creaking. Forcing herself to look, Lynn noticed her husband and in-laws staring at her open-mouthed from several feet away, up on the driveway. They needn't have bothered to order her not to move and to stay right there, she was stuck.

          In the ensuing minutes, Lynn had plenty of time to wish she was anywhere else , but there. She was beyond mortified. She had wanted to prove she was still independent and capable, and instead she'd narrowly missed tumbling to her death. The husband rallied several male neighbours who lifted her and the still intact car up off the pile of cement blocks which had caught the undercarriage of the catapulting car at just the perfect spot. She suspected the men laughed a little too freely and made a big display of carrying the Honda back to the safety of the driveway. Her brother-in-law's concern for her welfare was tear-inducing; "Are the pizzas okay?"

         There was nothing more for Lynn to do, but exit the car on shaking legs, bow to her audience, and thank her rescuers. She wasn't going to admit to them that her life had flashed before her eyes because that had already happened yesterday when she gave birth to her first child; the child that was awaiting her return in the house.