“Halfway is better than no way,” Marco grumbled. Trouble ahead, he squeezed out the window. “Get out of my way!” Realizing it would have little effect on his situation, he slung his body back inside, then gripped the steering wheel so tight, his fingers turned white.
Man this sucks! The air gushed through the window and yet his face dripped of sweat like a leaking faucet. He laid on the horn. “You morons!” He felt better yelling.
Marco pressed on the brake until his foot was buried into the carpet, but the vehicle only continued to gain speed.
“Look out! I can’t control this thing!”
He pressed the horn again and again. The cars ahead stayed their course.
“What is wrong with you people?” What good is a horn if everyone ignores it?
Marco swerved in and out of the traffic, nearly missing every car by inches. A red light had stopped the cars ahead of him, which forced him to veer into the oncoming lanes. He whizzed by the stalled line of cars and headed straight for the cross traffic. Even as he continued to lay on the horn, all motor vehicles continued as if he weren’t there. He pulled the emergency brake, but the engine was at full throttle. Burned blue acrid smoke billowed up behind him. He swallowed hard as he neared the moving cross traffic.
“No! No! No!” God, I don’t care if it’s a cliché, but I’m too young to die! ”
An opening appeared and he cranked the steering wheel hard to the left. The car spun 180 degrees, slipped through the opening between a truck and a smart car, then spun another 180 degrees before heading forward into an oncoming double tanker oil truck.
“Helllllp!”
The oil tanker skidded toward him with its deep horn blaring, the rear tank fish-tailing to the shoulder of the road. Marco pulled hard to the right and his car shot over a medium and tipped up on two wheels for fifty feet before slamming back down to the pavement. It skidded, ricocheted off the curb, then raced forward once again at full speed—his periphery caught one of his hubcaps rolling away at an angle. In front, was a garbage truck with blinking lights lifting a plastic recycle bin. Marco saw a service road to the right and aimed for it.
The sedan slid on to the access and sped down the little road until it ended at a pristine cut lawn. As he rolled onto the grass, he glanced in the rear view mirror. Brown parallel streaks followed behind. The green space was a city park with rolling humps and walking paths. People stretched out on the grass taking in the sun or walked leisurely along the paths. Captive to the vehicle, Marco could only watch as he went down one hill and up the next. Empty boxes of McDonalds nuggets and fries danced on the floor at every bump.
He pounded on the horn. “Out of the way!”
A man holding a baby turned around froze when he spotted the oncoming threat.
“What is your problem, man--Move!”
Marco swerved left and the right rear bumper clipped the man’s leg—he cradled the baby like a football while falling to the sod in a graceful pirouette. Dirt flew around like a sprinkler, casting soil on everything within thirty feet.
“How can I stop this hunk of metal? Where is the sand box! There is always a sandbox in a park!” He scanned the green. “No, of course not. Not this one. How about a pool? There is always a pool in a park.” No pool. “What kind of park is this!” Come on God, throw me a bone!
People screamed, shouted, cried, and even threw rocks at him as he flew by. Marco’s shirt was saturated with sweat and sticky remnants from a half-filled stray coke container. He wiped his face with his forearm and steered around obstacles as if he was operating a video game.
“I can’t stop!” He shouted at them. It’s not my fault! I’ll sue the manufacture, I’ll…. Oh no… A set of bleachers full of people listening to a band was straight ahead. “I didn’t mean bleachers, God. I meant something soft. Okay, I removed the keys from the ignition, pulled the emergency brake till it broke off, haven’t hurt anyone, and I even have clean underwear. What else should I do! What else can I do? On both sides of him were tightly packed families. The only option seemed to be straight ahead.
“So what would you do?”
“Are you looking at me, Professor? Why are you asking me? Ask someone else.”
“But I’m asking you, Carl. So what would you do?”
“I don’t know. Plow into the crowd to see how many I can put into the hospital? That’s a crazy question.”
“Is it?”
The professor leaned over his desk. “We have to answer crazy questions every day. Should we blow up Iran’s nuclear facilities and kill a hundred, because they may kill thousands? Should we send a drone into Pakistan to eliminate the dreaded Al Queda, possibly killing innocent bystanders?”
“Yeah, it’s stupid. You put me in an impossible situation. I will have to kill either the people on the left or the people on the right or the people in the stands. Somebody has to die.”
“Do they?”
“According to your scenario.”
“Think, Carl. There is always a way out.”
“There isn’t! Somebody’s gotta die!”
“Oh Carl. I am so disappointed in you. There is a way out.”
“Well I don’t know what it is. And I doubt anyone else here knows.”
“I know,” said a young woman in the back.
The professor looked to the back to see a redheaded woman with black cat-eye glasses. “Heather. Good, tell us.”
“I know the answer, but refuse to tell you.”
“Ha, ha!” laughed Carl. “You don’t know either.”
“Oh yes I do. I texted my answer to my email account. The answer is there, but I’m not going to say it here.”
“Why?” asked the professor.
“I don’t want to give you the satisfaction of knowing the answer.”
“Oooooh,” said the rest of the class.
A weak buzz sounded from the clock.The professor shook his head. “It seems as though you were saved by the buzzer. I’ll see you all tomorrow and we will continue this discussion.”
Carl came to the side of Heather as she was leaving the room. “Can I walk you to your car?”“Okay, what’s up, Carl?”
He leaned in and whispered. “So what’s the answer?”
She gave him a sly smirk. “If I tell you then--”
“No, I promise. I’ll keep my mouth shut.”
“Sure you will. No way mister.”
Carl hung his head like he had been scolded. “Fine.”
“I’ll give you a hint. Is the assumption really true?”
Carl growled. “Nevermind. I hate philosophy. It throws out theoretical scenarios that never have anything to do with real life.”
Heather stopped and tipped her head. “That’s not true.”
“Yes it is. When some old guy that can’t even open a pack of gum says that reality is only in the mind, or quotes stupid sayings like ‘losing an illusion makes you wiser than finding a truth’.”
“Ludwig Borne?” Heather asked.
“Yeah, him. Come on. Truth is truth and we all know when we see it.”
“Do we?”
“Don’t get weird on me, Heather. This is a wall,” he said pounding on the concrete school building. “Try to tell me different.”
“I don’t know, Carl. Is it a wall or is it a collection of tiny pieces of sand and gravel?”
Carl rolled his eyes. “This class is just a game that is played with philosophical mumbo jumbo and you’re hypnotized by it. You drank the professor’s kool-aid.”
“Just because I get A’s in the class doesn’t mean I drank the kool-aid.”“Listen, I’m a real guy with real thoughts…and real needs,” he said, putting his arm around her shoulder.
They approached her ‘66 Plymouth Barracuda and she removed his arm. “Nice try. This is where we part, Carl. If you can’t figure out the answer, call me.”
“How about you drive me over to your place. We can discuss a few truths a little further.”
Heather chuckled. “That is one truth that is a figment in your imagination. Call me, later.” She opened her door and stepped into her car. She started the engine and a cloud of blue smoke spilled out the tail pipe. Heather revved up the engine and waved to Carl.
In another moment, she was whisking her way back to her apartment. Something gnawed inside her. She pulled over and took her phone out to text Carl a message.
It said: Okay Carl, here is the answer. Marco must ignore the physicality of the situation. Reality is how we wish to view it. In ‘A Course in Miracles’ it says “I have given everything I see…all the meaning it has for me.” So you see, reality is an illusion and, therefore, there is no car accident and no one dies. It’s all in his mind.
She stuck the phone back in her purse and continued her drive back home.
The heat had built up inside. She tried to roll the window down, but it got stuck half way. “Old cars,” she mumbled.
Heather wound her way up a curvy road on the outskirts of town. Once she crested the hill the engine suddenly revved up and the vehicle began to gain speed. She took her foot off the pedal and tried the brakes--no affect. She pushed the brakes to the floor with zero response and looked ahead of her.
“Oh no,” she muttered as the car descended into town at rush hour ….
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