Blood was pouring out of a deep gash in Sunny’s leg and she had a road burn that looked like a fiery red exclamation point. I was shaken up but not hurt. I don’t know how fast we were going, but it was clearly too fast. I considered myself lucky to walk away unscathed.
Almost immediately a curious crowd gathered around us. Someone yelled, “Call an ambulance!” and it all became murky after that. Sunny needed stitches for the gash in her leg, and since she’d been wearing shorts, the scrape on her leg started at her ankle and went all the way up to her knee, leaving a huge scar that remained on her leg for all the years I knew her.
My mother had finally saved up enough money to buy her first car ever, a used pale green Oldsmobile. I suspect my uncle Kay had something to do with talking her into buying a car because I had never heard her say she wanted one. In fact, she seemed to have been fine without a car all those years.
Mom didn’t know how to drive, so Uncle Kay was teaching her. She was scared to death to parallel park and Kay came back extremely frustrated each time they went out to practice.
Right after she’d bought the car, Sunny came over. She made a big deal about us finally having a car. She told my mother she loved the color and would really like to give it a spin. My mother was reluctant at first, but finally agreed under two conditions: 1) she wouldn’t let me drive, and 2) we wouldn’t go downtown. As soon as we got a few blocks away from my house, Sunny stopped the car and turned to me. “Okay, now you drive,” she said. Before I could respond, she got out of the driver’s seat and came around to my side.
“But we promised my mother I wouldn’t drive,” I said, not budging. “And I don’t have a driver’s license yet.”
“Since when do you do what your mother tells you do?” she said, opening the passenger side door. “You’re never going to learn to drive if you don’t practice. It’s harder to start out with a stick or I’d let you drive the VW. Come on.” She pushed me over to the driver’s seat and got in.
We drove for a while around the neighborhood, and then she said, “Hey, drive me to the library. I need to pick up a book for a class.”
I did as she suggested, even though it was downtown, the very place my mother had told us not to go. I don’t know why I didn’t just say no to her, but I didn’t.
When we got to the library, the lot was full. Sunny said, “Okay, this will be a good time for you to practice parallel parking. Park between these two cars.” She pointed to an open spot right out front. With her giving me instructions the entire time, I managed to get in the parking space without touching the bumpers of the other cars. The entire time I was doing it I was petrified, but when it was done I felt good knowing I could do it.
Sunny ran in and got her book and was out in a few minutes. I waited in the car. Now it was time to pull out of the parking space. I backed up a little, following Sunny’s directions. I turned the steering wheel and inched forward. I backed up again and pulled forward very slowly, turning the wheel the whole time.
“Okay, you’re clear, go ahead,” Sunny said.
I inched my way forward.
“Okay, you’ve got room,” Sunny said. “Go!”
I hesitated. It didn’t look like there was enough space between me and the car in front of me.
“Go!” Sunny yelled. “Go!”
I put my foot on the accelerator, and because I was so nervous from Sunny yelling at me, I pressed too hard and crashed into the car in front of me.
I was horrified. What had I done? I got out of the car to see what damage I’d caused. The entire front of my mother’s new car was smashed in. I felt sick to my stomach. My mother’s beautiful car—the car she had saved up for years to buy—was ruined. And worse, I’d been the one to ruin it. I thought I might throw up.
The guy who owned the car I hit came out and inspected the damage to his car, a new Cadillac. There was hardly any damage, just a little dent in his bumper.
I wasn’t angry at Sunny for telling me I was clear when I wasn’t; I was too worried about what my mother would say and do, and too ashamed of myself for breaking her rules and ruining her car. And I had Sunny up on a pedestal. She could do no wrong.
I was so nervous on the way home I could hardly breathe. As we drove up in front of our apartment, I started feeling dizzy, and by the time I opened the front door I felt like I was about to pass out. I sat down on the couch and told my mother what I had done.
She immediately got up and looked out the front door. When she saw the front of the car, she turned to me in a blind rage. The look on her face was devastating. She looked at me like she hated me, like she despised me. Then she started yelling at me, accusing me of being selfish, of not caring about anyone but myself. She said there was something terribly wrong with me, that I was crazy and that she didn’t know what to
