English Essays

Short Story: Car Journey

2016 Leaving Certificate English Paper I -
Much of the action in TEXT 2 takes place within the confines of Ray's car. Write a short story that centres on two characters and a car journey.

He had his legs crossed and his feet propped on top of the dusty dashboard. It was not often that August went anywhere in the car with his mum, let alone to meet a complete stranger. His mum swatted his feet absentmindedly while keeping her eyes fixed on the road ahead, even though there was little to no traffic. August flickered his eyes to the side and groaned, shifting his feet to the floor of the car, and swinging his body to face the window on his right. An hour ago the sunset had radiated across the clouds, turning them molten orange with bands of pink, but now they were gone, and he was sat next to sky covered with streams of wispy grey ash and soot instead. Cotton balls of amber flashed across his vision sporadically as the car dashed along the road.

Kate glanced over at her son and bit the inside of her cheek. She sighed and focused on the road before clearing her throat. "It's okay if you don't want to go... We can always turn back and try another day," She suggested cautiously. She heard him groan again and she pursed her lips, tapping her nails on the steering wheel. "You've finally agreed to let me meet my real mother, and you think I want to back out now?" He turned to face her and raised his eyebrows.

"I just don't want you to get too excited about this. It's a lot to handle, and I know you've probably read all these reunion stories that end perfectly, that 'fill the empty hole in your heart', and warming fairy-tales like that. I don't want you to feel hurt if it's not exactly like you'd imagined," Kate huffed, fully aware that this might as well be a roundabout conversation. She found it quite difficult to talk to August. She remembered she first adopted him, and she would always worry that he would instinctively know that she was not his real mother, and that they wouldn't bond; stupid thoughts like that which she would laugh at now.

"Trust me. I'm not getting my hopes up to meet some woman who abandoned me,"

"August!" His mother frowned.

"Oh, come on! She left me at some random person's house - who of course would have different coloured skin to me - and named me after a month of the year to make it even worse!"

"August, stop it," She said sternly. "You can't blame everything on your mother," The teenager scoffed and folded his arms. Every parent's evening, every school trip, every meeting, August was hurled with judgement from his classmates and teachers. There would always be at least three remarks of, 'Oh, this is your mum?' just because they had different coloured skin. It bothered Kate. August despised it.

Kate gulped at the silence. The car jolted to a halt as she almost ran through a red light. "Sorry," She muttered, shaking her head. She caught a glimpse of the deathly expression on August's face and it almost made her laugh. "I met her once, you know? Your biological mother," She began, pausing briefly to gauge his expression before continuing. "The adoption agency contacted her to let her know that her son had been taken on, so, she rang me, and asked to meet for coffee,"

The two mothers met on August's third birthday. It was a serene, picturesque café, and looked even better in the summer. It was a bright day, not devastatingly hot, but pleasantly warm. Kate had arrived first, took a seat, and ordered an iced tea. The outside area was full of greenery and colourful pops of flowers. It was not particularly busy, so the entrance of a woman in a business skirt and blouse caught her attention straight away. She was young, certainly younger than herself, and was pretty too. Kate felt the tingling of butterflies in her stomach as she approached, asking with a smile, "Excuse me? Are you Kate, by any chance?" She spoke kindly and politely.

"Uh, yes, I am," Kate fumbled over her words, making an attempt to reciprocate the smile.

A car behind her honked, and she jumped out of her skin. August laughed loudly as Kate stepped on the accelerator again. "How did you not see it turn green!?"

"I guess I was too invested in the story," She had to giggle a bit at her slow reaction too. The car swiftly overtook theirs and Kate scoffed. August caught his breath from laughing too hard and sighed. "So what did you say her name was again?"

"Her name's Beth. I bet you'll love her,"

August hummed and twisted back to the window. The landscape had become more rural than before, and he could just make out the shadows of sheep and cows in the fields as they whizzed by. He wondered whether he would actually love his mother, this Beth woman. That did not concern him as much as whether she would reject him.

Kate was more aware of August's feelings than he thought. She gulped again as she saw the street sign that matched the one of the address she had scrawled down on a post-it note while they were talking over the phone. "I... I'm just as nervous as you are, okay?" She spoke quietly as she turned the corner into a residential area.

"Why? It's not like she's your mother," August replied. He watched the numbers on the doors of the houses they passed, counting each one. Kate stayed silent as she parked neatly on the pavement next to house number fifteen, and August impatiently unbuckled his seat belt, reaching for the car door handle.

"Hang on a second August," Kate said. August hesitated before facing his mother. "You're right. That's exactly why I am worried. She's your mother," Kate had her hands tight on the steering wheel, and could not muster the strength to look over to her right. August huffed and rolled his eyes, "Look..." He stopped in thought, reluctant to say what he knew he should. "No matter what she says to me, no matter what I say to her, no matter what we have in common, you'll always be my mum,"

Kate finally looked over to her son with a soft smile. She leaned forward for a hug and August dodged, immediately climbing out of the car. She chuckled, "I can't get a hug after you say that?!"

"No way," August shook his head, grinning when Kate was not looking.

He glanced up to the house and saw a woman in her late twenties, smiling hopefully in the illuminated doorway. She resembled someone he had always wished for, even someone he had dreamed of meeting, but he knew that she could never replace the mother he shared a car journey with today.