Chapter nine: Oh shit!

In the blink of an eye I’m on my feet and chasing after my dad’s car, which is now twenty feet from crashing into the garage and ending my life.

 

I catch up to it. My left hand scrabbles at the door handle, trying to lift it, to open it. Someone keeps saying “Oh shit” over and over. It’s me.

 

FIFTEEN FEET

 

I get the door open, and now I’m hopping on my left foot, trying to get the timing right. I’m going to throw myself into the moving car and hit the brake with my right foot.

 

TEN FEET

 

But the car keeps pulling ahead. Must hop faster!

 

FIVE FEET

 

Images of the car smashing first through the garage door and then through the garage’s back wall flash through my mind as I dive headfirst into the car.

 

THREE FEET

 

Rocketing upright, I stamp on the brake pedal.

 

And miss.

 

TWO FEET

 

I stamp again. And again. And again.

 

Where’s the damn pedal? I can’t see it!

 

ONE FOOT

 

Finally—FINALLY!—my foot finds the pedal and I stop the car.

 

I sit stone still behind the wheel, gripping it with both hands, and stare straight ahead. I don’t blink. I don’t breathe.

 

The indifferent sound of crickets drifts through the open driver’s door.

 

I wait for my heartbeat to return to normal. Then I put the car into park. I double- and triple-check that it’s in park before getting out and going around the front of the car to open the garage door.

 

Turns out there’s not enough room for me to stand between the front bumper and the door, so I clamber onto the hood and open it from there.

 

Five minutes later, car safely stowed and no one the wiser, I get into bed. I lay on my side facing the closet door and close my eyes. Some time later, I fall sleep.

 

The End

Done