Suzie’s House 367 : Driver in Training

“Go, go, go!” Tracy sat in the shotgun seat and leaned way too close while she looked out the driver’s window.

“Y-yeah. We… we should g-g-g-go.” Emma sat right behind him.

For a moment Bruce couldn’t remember how he’d ended up in the driver’s seat. Technically, he didn’t know how to drive.

“They couldn’t really take away my drums, could they?” Kate’s plaintive voice came from somewhere in the back of the van.

Ah, that was right. After tossing the last drum in randomly, there hadn’t been anywhere in the van for Bruce to sit. He’d run around to see his uncle holding the police at bay. There was no way he’d be able to come and drive the van without the police coming over too, and the driver’s seat was open. So here he was.

He knew how to drive an ATV. This couldn’t be too much different, could it? Bruce turned the key. The van sputtered to life. All right. Foot on the gas pedal. Which one was the gas pedal? There were three of them down there. No time to worry about it, he stomped on all three at once.

The van roared, but went nowhere.

“Do you know how to drive?” Justin’s voice stayed totally calm. He didn’t sound at all like he was looking down on Bruce, but Bruce’s temper flared anyway.

“Of course I do!” Quarrelsome, his granny would call that. To make himself feel better he grabbed the gear shift thing to his right. “Just not a stick.”

Almost for a minute he thought he couldn’t do this. Then his left foot slipped off two of the pedals and the van lurched forward. Like it or not, he was driving.

He almost veered into the parked cars in the oncoming side of West Gilman Street where his uncle had parked, then corrected too much and almost grazed the parked cars on the right side. Steering wheels didn’t work quite the way the handlebars of an ATV did, but he was getting the hang of it.

“Wait. Do you know how to drive,” Tracy asked.

“Hurry!” Kate shouted. “They’re looking at us.”

Bruce pressed the gas pedal harder. They moved faster, but they also made more noise.

“Good thing it’s a one way street,” Tracy muttered.

By the time the street dead ended in Butler, Bruce had things more or less under control. Except that after he stopped and tried to make a right turn, the van lurched and died. Right. Stomp on all pedals at once. No, wait. His uncle once told him about the clutch. Now, what was it? Alternate between clutch and gas? He started the van up again and gave it a try. It kind of worked, too. Except that a bunch of stuff in the back moved around and Gene used a liberal amount of profane words all of a sudden.

He tried to turn left on East Gorham, only to face a wall of oncoming traffic.

“It’s one way! To the other way. The other way!” Tracy braced herself between the strap over the passenger door and the dashboard. She looked wild.

Bruce desperately spun the wheel, getting them going the right way.

“Turn left up here.” Justin’s voice rose and got tight.

“I can’t,” Bruce snarled. “There are too many cars.

“I-i-i-isn’t that one way, too,” Emma asked.

“How should I know? I only ever walk on these streets. That or right with a grown up. I never had to pay attention before.” Tracy said it to Emma, but Bruce felt it right along with her.

Only now he had better pay attention or they were all going to die.

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