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Authors: martin sowery
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planned to have only soft
drinks but spice them with the pills, which he now thought maybe
he’d overdone; how he’d decided to borrow a nice car for the
evening, something better than his own heap, but there was no
friend who had offered the keys. He saw a car he liked and took
it.
-But you had keys, I saw
you.
-Brought my own keys for the
look of the thing. It’s a Ford. Easy enough.
He seemed exhausted beyond
measure.
-David, I think you’ve probably
got everything useful he can tell us, Ali Abbas said gently. We
can’t stay here all night.
-And in the morning, we’ll be
charged with taking a vehicle without consent, at least; and who do
you think will believe that the two of us didn’t know what was
going on? I get a conviction and I can say goodbye to my legal
career. Probably the army puts it down to youthful high spirits on
Tim’s part; unless the drugs part comes out. You, I don’t know.
-My mother will die if she hears
about this.
David had no reply for that.
They were silent for a moment.
-We hit something, or someone,
he said He had been avoiding saying it for some time.
-I don´t know, Ali Abbas
claimed, miserably.
They listened. The night was
completely silent. No moans of pain or cries for help.
-I was looking at Tim, when we
hit, David said after a while. You must have seen something.
-I thought there was a person,
Ali Abbas admitted. I have an image of someone; an old lady. But I
must have imagined it. I was so frightened. What would an old lady
be doing on the road at this time of night?
-She could be walking her
dog.
-Wouldn´t we hear the dog?
-We have to check, David said.
He walked back to the car. Ali Abbas stayed where he was. He felt
unable to move.
He strained to watch a vague
shadow walk back to the car. He lost sight of the figure against
the dark bulk of the wrecked vehicle; then he saw David’s shape
pacing up and down the road for a while. In his own mind, Ali Abbas
felt only a strange calm, surprising to himself, and an absolute
reluctance to do anything but remain exactly where he was.
Eventually David returned.
-There´s nothing on the car that
looks like we hit a person, he announced.
-You mean no blood, Ali Abbas
asked him?
-I couldn´t see anything at all.
They left it at that. And I couldn´t see a sign of anyone along the
road. There´s no sound.
-That may not mean anything, Ali
Abbas felt obliged to say. An impact at that speed could send even
something heavy a long way. Impossible to calculate the direction.
If it was something. If it was a person who... couldn´t make a
noise. Maybe you wouldn´t find them till daylight, even with a
proper search.
-Don´t talk like that, we don´t
know there was anyone; or anything. Could have been a deer if it
wasn´t our imagination. Most likely there was nothing at all.
-Do you think?
-There´s more, David said. I was
looking along the road. I suppose I was hoping there would be a
lake we could push the car into, or some other magical way to hide
the damn thing, but maybe I found something better.
-What?
-This road looked familiar.
There’s a sign back there, just before we started to skid, that
confirmed it to me. We were coming back on ourselves. This idiot
had started to drive us in circles. The car is facing the wrong way
for going back to town.
-I don’t see how that helps
us.
-Look: a car was stolen in the
city by some joyriders who ran it off the road here. Happens all
the time. Nothing to do with us.
-Apart from all the people who
saw us at the party.
-It’s just a Ford car. It was
dark. No one noticed what we arrived in. Did you see all the really
fancy cars that were there? Anyway, they’re country folk. Probably
think nothing of it. Wouldn’t be the first time someone round here
has driven their own car into a ditch blind drunk and then
staggered home and reported it stolen next day.
-But it’s not our car
-So we don’t even have to report
it. I’m telling you, no one will connect this to
drinks but spice them with the pills, which he now thought maybe
he’d overdone; how he’d decided to borrow a nice car for the
evening, something better than his own heap, but there was no
friend who had offered the keys. He saw a car he liked and took
it.
-But you had keys, I saw
you.
-Brought my own keys for the
look of the thing. It’s a Ford. Easy enough.
He seemed exhausted beyond
measure.
-David, I think you’ve probably
got everything useful he can tell us, Ali Abbas said gently. We
can’t stay here all night.
-And in the morning, we’ll be
charged with taking a vehicle without consent, at least; and who do
you think will believe that the two of us didn’t know what was
going on? I get a conviction and I can say goodbye to my legal
career. Probably the army puts it down to youthful high spirits on
Tim’s part; unless the drugs part comes out. You, I don’t know.
-My mother will die if she hears
about this.
David had no reply for that.
They were silent for a moment.
-We hit something, or someone,
he said He had been avoiding saying it for some time.
-I don´t know, Ali Abbas
claimed, miserably.
They listened. The night was
completely silent. No moans of pain or cries for help.
-I was looking at Tim, when we
hit, David said after a while. You must have seen something.
-I thought there was a person,
Ali Abbas admitted. I have an image of someone; an old lady. But I
must have imagined it. I was so frightened. What would an old lady
be doing on the road at this time of night?
-She could be walking her
dog.
-Wouldn´t we hear the dog?
-We have to check, David said.
He walked back to the car. Ali Abbas stayed where he was. He felt
unable to move.
He strained to watch a vague
shadow walk back to the car. He lost sight of the figure against
the dark bulk of the wrecked vehicle; then he saw David’s shape
pacing up and down the road for a while. In his own mind, Ali Abbas
felt only a strange calm, surprising to himself, and an absolute
reluctance to do anything but remain exactly where he was.
Eventually David returned.
-There´s nothing on the car that
looks like we hit a person, he announced.
-You mean no blood, Ali Abbas
asked him?
-I couldn´t see anything at all.
They left it at that. And I couldn´t see a sign of anyone along the
road. There´s no sound.
-That may not mean anything, Ali
Abbas felt obliged to say. An impact at that speed could send even
something heavy a long way. Impossible to calculate the direction.
If it was something. If it was a person who... couldn´t make a
noise. Maybe you wouldn´t find them till daylight, even with a
proper search.
-Don´t talk like that, we don´t
know there was anyone; or anything. Could have been a deer if it
wasn´t our imagination. Most likely there was nothing at all.
-Do you think?
-There´s more, David said. I was
looking along the road. I suppose I was hoping there would be a
lake we could push the car into, or some other magical way to hide
the damn thing, but maybe I found something better.
-What?
-This road looked familiar.
There’s a sign back there, just before we started to skid, that
confirmed it to me. We were coming back on ourselves. This idiot
had started to drive us in circles. The car is facing the wrong way
for going back to town.
-I don’t see how that helps
us.
-Look: a car was stolen in the
city by some joyriders who ran it off the road here. Happens all
the time. Nothing to do with us.
-Apart from all the people who
saw us at the party.
-It’s just a Ford car. It was
dark. No one noticed what we arrived in. Did you see all the really
fancy cars that were there? Anyway, they’re country folk. Probably
think nothing of it. Wouldn’t be the first time someone round here
has driven their own car into a ditch blind drunk and then
staggered home and reported it stolen next day.
-But it’s not our car
-So we don’t even have to report
it. I’m telling you, no one will connect this to
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