car chase

This is from way back, some of you, who’re about my age, will know from some of the references, the rest of you…………….can only wish you’d lived here then.

Did I ever tell you about the time I went to find my girlfriend, at a party she was supposed to be at?……………………..I didn’t? well,…………

Gather ’round children………….

I was hanging out at Shane’s Games, (that’s right, you remember.) with my buddies. My girlfriend, with whom i’d recently reconciled, was there with her friends.  A friend of ours, was having a party, that the girls wanted to attend, my buddies and I decided to stay and do our thing at Shane’s. So they left, and we stayed, they were going to meet us back here later. After they’d been gone awhile, (longer than I thought they should’ve been) it dawned on me, ‘ I’m sure the guy she dated while we were broken up, was at this party!’ and in my mind, ‘ probably hanging out together!’. ‘ I’d better go check this out.’ I thought, and hopped in my car and took off. I get as far as the intersection of Third Ave. and Main Street, I’m on Third, facing East, waiting for the light to change. Just as the light is about to change, a car pulls up on Main Street, it’s heading North. I didn’t think anything of the fact that, they rolled down their windows and were waving their arms about, and yelling……….apparently, at me. So, I pulled out into the intersection, and made a left, onto Main, heading North. I started to think something might be up, when they ran their red light, and sped up next to me. They were in the right lane, and apparently, they wanted my attention, I’m sure they started out calling my name, very politely, but I had my radio on full-blast, and couldn’t hear them. I finally figured out, they wanted my attention, when the beer bottles and cans, they were throwing, started hitting my car. Naturally, I looked over then, to see what they needed. Imagine my surprise, as I look over, there are three heads, and at least, five arms hanging out the drivers window, there was another guy, or a really ugly girl, standing up through the sunroof, and yet another guy, hanging out the passenger window and pointing across the top of the car at me. Now, when I say “pointing”, some of them were pointing with their index fingers, but most were using their middle fingers, and pointing up with them, emphatically. I still couldn’t hear them, because AC/DC was cranking out of my speakers, but I was close enough to read their lips, and most of their words started with “MOTHERF@%&!@, and PULLOVER, SO WE CAN KICK YOUR ASS!!”. I’ve never been the smartest kid in the class, but I was smart enough to know, I wasn’t pulling over!  ‘Oh Lord, what do I do?’ I thought. I damned sure wasn’t going to outrun them, I drove a ’65 mustang, with a straight six and a three-speed, standard transmission. ‘ Maybe if I just keep driving, they’ll run out of  gas’, I thought, ‘or maybe, they’ll forget I’m here. Or realize, they’ve got the wrong guy.’ It was then, that they started swerving into my lane. Now, they were in the right lane, and I was in the left lane, “people, there is no ‘lefter lane’, or ‘ left-left lane’, no, the next lane over, is called ‘on-coming traffic !” and they were trying to run me into it! ‘ Ok’, I thought, ‘ there’s a turn coming up, ill turn left, on Ninth Street, they can’t make a left turn, from the right-hand lane, that’s illegal.’ Yes, I really thought, JUST that. So, as Ninth Street approached, I got ready to crank it, ‘ they’ll have to go straight, and I’ll lose them!’ Teehee! Yes, once again, I really thought this.  I crank it! I floor it! I’m speeding across the Ninth Street Bridge! speeding to freedom! speeding to safety! All six of my pony’s cylinders, are hitting, I’m cruising, I’m going…………..thirty-five, what?  coming up on the railroad tracks! I’m free! ……………’is that………how’d they get beside me?……………passing me………..sliding to a stop, on the tracks, crossways in the road. I hit my brakes, I’m about thirty yards from them. People start piling out of that car, and keep piling out, I swear to God, it’s like a clown-car. All of a sudden, it’s at least, thirty to one, and they’re all running at my car, yelling, flipping me off, throwing cans and bottles. ‘ Well, this probably isn’t going to end well for me’, I thought, as I watched them run and stumble towards my car. Then, a thought. ‘ back up to the gravel road I’d just passed, turn around, and drive off again.’ I think I like that idea better than what I can see happening here. I put the car in reverse, and start backing up, theyre still catching me, but, after a few seconds, they realize, they aint catching me. I swear to God, they all figured this out at once, you could see the realization, on their faces, in my headlights. After they’d all skidded to a stop, turned around, and syarted running back to their car, I took my eyes off them, to watch in the rearview mirror. by the time I’d found the gravel road, and backed into it, I looked to see how much time I had, before they caught me again. What the?…………………………….they weren’t there. where I expected headlights barreling down on me, there were none! all I could see, were  lights, pointed straight up into the sky, about where their car should’ve been. I waited a minute, trying to figure out what was going on, I figured a closer look was safe, once I saw several silhouettes moving around in the light. I, very slowly,  drove a little closer, until I could see what had happened.’ Holy Miracles! Thank You God’, I thought. What theyd done, in their haste to turn their car around, so they could catch and kill me, (for what reason, I still didn’t know.) they’d driven their car off into a ditch, between the railroad tracks! I could see, that their back tires weren’t even touching ground. I put my car in reverse again, turned on my dome light, honked my horn as I started backing away, and waved goodbye to them. Now, I was pretty tired, from all the excitement, so when I say ‘waved’, I might not have had all my fingers extended, in fact I’m pretty sure I just waved with the one finger, as I drove off into the night, AC/DC, still blaring………………………………….just another Saturday night, in the hood.

 

Epilogue

On Monday morning, after first hour, I went to my girlfriend’s locker, to walk her to second hour. A guy I barely knew came over from his locker, and asked ” are you Tom Storrer?” “I am, why?” I asked. ” I’m supposed to tell you, you messed those guys’ car up pretty bad the other night, and they’re going to get you.” “Really? they friends of yours?” I asked, moving a little closer. ” yep” “where are your friends now?” still closer. ” They go to circle, so they’re not here.”………….it wasn’t long after that, the lights went out in his world, and they asked me to leave school for three days. I had to miss those three days of track practice too. upon my return to school, I had to check-in at the office. I ran into my track/football coach in the doorway, and he asked me about the fight.

Coach:”did some teacher see you fighting, and break it up?”

Me: “no”

Coach: “why’d you stop then?”

Me: showing him my hands, that were bruised and cut up. “my hands started hurting.”

Coach: ” well, why didn’t you go to kicking him?”