Slow Down
6/12/23
Prompt: Slow Down
“Can you turn it up?” The passenger asks.
“Yeah, I guess.” I respond as I reach for the dial. I turn it up slightly and Alison shoots me a glare. But continues her scrolling on her phone.
Its late. We are on the way back from a new year’s party. Its cold and rainy with dark sky engulfing the hills in the distance. Cars surround every side of the car with their red break-lights reflecting through the prism raindrops that pound on the windshield. We aren’t moving. Im tired and I want to sleep. We are still about an hour from home.
“Man! This traffic isn’t letting up, huh, Leo.” She drops her phone and rests her face on her palm looking in my direction.
“Yeah, obviously.” I reply with my eyes squinted from tiredness.
“Wow. Im telling mom you are being rude.” She picks her phone back up and begins to type.
I don’t respond I only glare at the cars stopped before me.
She looks up at me but then back down. “Jeez, I was just joking. Lighten up a little ”
The cars finally begin to move along the three-lane road. The cars beside me are moving at a faster pace, so I switch into it quickly. It’s the carpool lane so there are fewer cars present. One behind and one farther up ahead now. I step on the gas to meet the car’s trunk in front of me.
“Hey, hey, chill.” Alison says still looking at her phone.
At this point im ignoring all sounds in my vicinity. The flooding radio, the acceleration, the tires screeching and the wind pounding as my car parts the air in front of me. I reach the car in front of me and slow down slightly. I look to my right and see an opening in the line of slower moving traffic. I take my chance. I jerk the wheel and enter the lane passing the car I was once behind.
“Ah! Dude! What the hell?” My sister says as her phone is shaken out of her hands and is slammed into the window.
I pay no attention to her. My eyes are squinted and focused on the next opportunity to get back into the carpool lane. I see it! Bam! I swerve back into the carpool lane and now there are no cars to be seen in front of me. I really put the pedal to the metal. 75. 87. 93 mph
“LEO!? LEO? WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” Alison is screaming and frantically shaking her hands. She is yelling at me but it is not making it to my ears. Nothing is.
Tears begin to form in Alison’s eyes. “LEO STOP. LEO THE ROAD. LEO!”
Nothing. No sound.
“SLOW DOWN. P-PLEASE SLOW DOWN, LEO!” She shrieks. She is now gripping my arm on the is steering wheel, shaking it panicked as she screams in my ear.
My vision is blurry. Slow down? Why? We are not even going that fa-. My eyes trace a sign to my left that has big bold numbers and letters. My words are caught. A 35 is printed boldly with a warning underneath. “Road ends.” Road? Ends? My heart sinks to my feet. My eyes slowly are re-centered in front of me. I see my speedometer at triple digits and the worst part in front of me. Or rather, what isn’t in front of me. The road is gone. I can hear again and see clearly. I look over slowly as time falters and decelerates. My sister is curled up in the edge of her seat holding her head.
Shes repeating, “Slow down. Slow down.” In her shaky voice I can barley make out. But its to late now.
The vehicle is being slowly swallowed into the darkness of the loud river below. I release my chokehold on the wheel and reach for Alison but im moving so very slow. Too slow. If only. If only I’d slowed down before. Before it was too late. Tears float up to the roof of the car as we fall. We hit the water beneath us and my heart slows. And slows. And slows down. And finally stops. Slow. Down.
Don't drink and drive... be safe...or something like that.
