As many of you know, I have a non-trivial commute to work every day. I've gotten used to it, but it means that I spend more than a few hours on the road. That means that I also see quite a few cars on the road. Most of the time, I only pay attention long enough to ensure that said car is not going to endanger my life. Other than that, I forget all about the vehicle as soon as it's out of eye sight. Still, there was this one car that managed to make a permanent home in my memory.
I first noticed this vehicle out of my peripheral vision when I was making a turn. On this particular intersection, three lanes all turn left, and I usually end up in the middle of those three lanes. I've learned over time to keep an eye on the lanes of either side of me as they turn, because people have very interesting ideas about which lane they are allowed to use. Also, some folks have a harder time staying in their lane. Either way, there is a bigger chance than I would like that I have to avoid a car suddenly entering my space. So, I like to keep at least a sidelong glance trained on the two other cars.
I did precisely that on this occasion, and something in the corner of my eye made me pause. I can't honestly tell you what it was that made me hesitate in that moment, but I tapped the brakes just a little bit out of reflex. We both completed the turn without problem, but the momentary decrease in speed allowed the car to pull a little farther ahead. I could now see exactly what had caught my attention: the hood was flipped up and bent in two. You know how the front end of modern cars "crumple" when they get in to an accident? It was a little bit like the hood had gone through that process. So when I say the hood was bent in two, I mean that it looked like there was a small hill where the front hood of the car should have been.
To be clear, I have no problem with older cars on the road. The car I drive is getting a bit long in the tooth itself. After all, I add 70+ miles on my car's odometer on a daily basis, so I'd feel silly putting a nice car through that kind of grind. Still, this car was in very, very obvious disarray. Aside from the fact that the engine wasn't protected from the elements in that condition, it had to have been harder to see when there was a big metal impediment in the way.
Now that the car was no longer right beside me, though, I noticed a second fact: it was spewing some kind of liquid. I quickly rolled up my windows, and then I did a double-take to ensure that I wasn't seeing things. Upon that second inspection, I realized that my eyes weren't playing tricks on me. There were actually drops of liquid coming from the car. And I noticed that the car's windshield wipers weren't on, so it's not like the driver was trying to clear the windshield. Whatever it was that was being propelled at my car, it wasn't intentional. What's more, I had no intention of lowering the windshield to verify what manner of liquid was being ejected from the car (side note: this thing reminded me a little bit of a zombie or a barely-holding-it-together monstrosity, so I shall henceforth refer to it as Franken-car).
For all I knew, that liquid was flammable. Hell, even if it was "just" oil, Franken-car's engine was slowly inching towards a very dangerous mode of operation. Engines can overheat. I specifically remember having visions of a fiery explosion in the lane next to mine. I also distinctly remember that the very next three words out of my mouth were, "oh, hell no."
I quickly applied more power to the accelerator, to put some distance between myself and Franken-car. Still, we weren't on the freeway, so I was inevitably bound to stop. And as I did so, I noticed Franken-car creeping back in to the picture on my right side. It was like the movie monster that refused to go away. It just kept coming and coming. In fact, it continued to dog me for the next few minutes. Those were some scary minutes, let me tell you.
Mercifully, we headed in different directions a few minutes later when we took different forks in the road. With maybe one exception, I have never been so relieved about a driving-related turn of events. I don't really remember the rest of the drive home, to be honest. I probably could've passed a spotted unicorn on the side of the road and I wouldn't have batted an eye at that point. I had survived an encounter with Franken-car, and that was good enough for me.
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