Hit & Run Trilogy, Part 3, Passenger's Point of View
Hit & Run in the Dark
Time Machine dial back some years
Cars and trucks zoom on a remote stretch of an Australian highway, at 120km/hr or likely more, no speed cameras on this zone. We are heading to some far away, now long forgotten, holiday destination.
The only light is coming from the passing cars, road markings and the starry southern sky. The asphalt and the trees around the road absorb the starlight and it is pitch dark on the road. Car lights elusively cut through the night.
Children are asleep in the back. I am dozing off in the front.
THUMP!
Dull noise and slight car vibration jerk me out of that state.
A small sleepy voice from the back: What was that?
Driver: Nothing, go back to sleep.
Small voice readily complies and goes back to sleep.
Car zooms through the night at unchanged speed.
Whispering conversation in the front seat:
Me: What was that?
Driver: I think I hit some animal.
Me: Shouldn't we stop and check?
I straighten up in my seat.
Driver: It is not safe to stop. There is no stop lane, traffic is fast, I am not stopping with children in the back. What if someone rammed into us in the dark? I'll stop at the petrol station.
We pull out at the petrol station, park and check the damage. Sleeping children stay in the car.
Both bumper and low side panel are showing some impact damage. We continue the whispering conversation outside the car.
I light up a cigarette. Time for some adult conversation.
Me: How do you know it was an animal?
Driver: I saw it, it was a small animal, looked like a dog.
Me: You saw it and you hit it? Why did you not try to avoid it?
Driver: I saw it too late. It darted from the roadside. I was driving very fast and I thought that it was unsafe to try and swerve at that speed. I swiped it sideways, it bounced off the car back to the roadside.
Silence. I hold back the expected and much-desired reassurance, as I am not sure what to make of the situation.
Driver: There is nothing we could have done to help the animal anyway, we are hours away from the nearest town.
Silence. The Driver would much rather hear my reassurance. I deliver full frontal instead. Ominous, even more so when whispered.
Me: Why did you drive so fast? Why didn't you stop after hitting it?
Driver: It was a split second decision. What would you have done?
Me: I don't think I would've driven so fast, hit an animal and ran.
Kaboom Silence.
More silence. The driver somehow must topple that Kaboom.
Driver: Do you remember when we were sailing on Lake Narrabeen with your work mates? Do you remember how you fell into the water, board sail fell on top of your head and you fought for your breath in the water under the sail? You could not make your way out from under the sail and you could have drowned.
Me: Well, I was caught under the sail and I did fight a bit for my breath but I doubt that I was about to drown.
Driver: You were not about to drown because I jumped right in to save you. Everybody else was just watching from the boat, paralysed. I dived right in and I got you out from under the sail so you could breathe.
Me: Maybe I could've drowned without your help, but unlikely.
Silence. I smoke away codes puffs into the warm night air: Meh. Gotta do better than the lake Narrabeen jump for a full Kaboom. There are no sharks or crocodiles there.
The Driver is well versed in my smoke signals.
Driver: Do you remember when we were in place X? We were all walking together, but kids were with you, I was slightly ahead. Then you saw something on the other side of the road and you just left us without telling us and you just walked across to check it.
Me: Can't I walk away for a second? You were there as well.
Driver: What you did was unsafe, just going across the road like that without warning me that you were leaving me in charge of the kids. When Toddler (2ish at the time) saw you on the other side of the road he followed you, called you and he ran towards you across the road, in front of the traffic. You just stood there, watching him running towards you across the road. Cars were coming towards him.
Me: I froze when I saw that. I don't know why I reacted that way.
Driver: Whilst you stood there frozen, I ran after him and I grabbed him in front of a car.
Kaboom Kaboom Kaboom Kaboom Kaboom Kaboom Kaboom Kaboom Kaboom Kaboom Kaboom
Me: That's true, you grabbed him.
Me: Also, when I was under that sail, maybe I did not need saving but you did not hesitate to jump for me.
Me: Sorry for what I said before, about the way you handled the situation, I said it without thinking it through.
Driver: It's ok. It's easy to make a wrong judgement call without thinking it through.
Kaboom Kaboom Kaboom
Journey continues
Looking back, I wonder what my split second reaction would have been behind the steering wheel of a speeding car on a remote Australian highway, in the pitch dark, with sleeping children at the back and a road animal in front. I am not sure that I know. I am glad that I was never thrown in a test like that.
Strangely enough, I am glad that I was so convincingly and overwhelmingly out Kaboomed that night. Since then, whenever I hear the approaching gallop of a High Moral Horse, coming to offer a ride, it gallops in the rhythm of all the Kabooms of that night.
Meh, it is not fun to ride that horse.
