jolted forward as a truck turned onto the street on which I was supposed to turn, and it ended up missing us by inches. Both of our heads slowly turned towards each other until her brown eyes locked to my green. She still had her hands so tightly latched around the handle that her knuckles were turning white. I was trying to hide my fear by smiling shyly at her as if to say “you told me so.” I felt terrible that I almost totaled her car, just because I wanted to prove something to myself.
I turned into the side street, even slower this time, partly because in that moment I realized that I also didn’t know how to turn the wheel. My hands bumped into each other trying to mimic the “hand-over-hand” motion I watched my mom do all the time. Once I turned onto that street, I immediately pulled over.
We didn’t exchange one word as we both simultaneously unbuckled our seatbelts, opened our doors, and shuffled around the car to switch seats. I felt her eyes watching me as I proceeded to buckle my seatbelt extra tightly. My eyes were staring hard at the road in front of us as it disappeared under the big silver hood of the car.
Looking back a year later, I realize how foolish I was to think I could drive a car when I didn’t, in fact, know how to drive a car. This experience taught me not to do anything I am not comfortable with and not to assume I know more than I do. It taught me be more cautious and to trust my gut in bad situations, especially if it has anything to do with an SUV and a new driver.
The Dark Side
Abbey Brown, 2017
19
Scholastic Honorable Mention, Digital Art