by Matt Crawley
Chapter 3
A week passed, and Gary was becoming more and more confident by the day. His journeys to work were becoming a strange blur, as if every drive was an out of body experience, until the car engine stopped and he would feel back to his old self. He still rode his basket-clad bicycle around Flocker's End - he didn't want to lose his identity. Deep down, that possibility terrified him.
He knocked on a slightly warped wooden door. A dimpled girl about his age, with her hair in a bob, opened it smiling. Her leg was in a cast, and she was hobbling awkwardly on a crutch.
"My chauffeur is here. How lovely!" she said. "I'll just get my things, Gaz, I'll be two seconds!" She swayed all over the floor, every step looking like she was going to fall. She was Vicky, a girl Gary had went to school with, and she needed a lift to her Grandmother's home on the other side of the village. "Thanks for your help, Gaz, I can't wait to get out of this stupid thing."
"That's ok" he said shyly, looking at his shoes. "Break your leg anytime you want, I don't mind to help you out." He rubbed the side of his stomach and grimaced.
"Ha-ha, I'll think about that offer!" she laughed as she slipped her jacket on. "Is something wrong?"
"No it's fine. I just got cut in the night by something, don't know what it was. Maybe I need to trim my fingernails." She lifted his T-shirt up slightly. He had a long, red line burning into his skin.
"Do you want anything for it?"
"No, please don't worry about me. You're the one with the broken leg!" he smiled. As they approached the Janus, Vicky noticed a long gash in the car's paintwork, on the side of its body. It looked like someone had walked past and raked it with their keys, as a bit of senseless vandalism. 'How can people do that?' she pondered.
The engine ignited with a roar and rumble. The pair engaged in small talk, verging on flirting. Gary had never flirted before - he never really knew when girls were doing it to him. He would just hide, stumble over his words. But now he was confident, like a new man. "Vicky, if you wanted me to, I would camp in your garden and be your own private chauffeur. I wouldn't mind that." He smirked. She giggled.
"I wouldn't mind that either, Gaz."
As they started to drive past the wheat fields, Gary became agitated. There was a pheasant prancing across the path. It stood in the middle of the road and tilted its head. Gary pressed his horn. The bird was gormless, pecking the earth. After a deep breath, Gary shoved his foot on the gas and accelerated at uncontrollable speed towards it. He was too quick. Before it had time to think, the pheasant disappeared into a firework of feathers as the car drove straight through it.
"Gary stop it!" Vicky shouted. The car screeched to a halt. "What's happened to you? If you're trying to impress me, it's not working well. Why the hell did you do that?"
He kept staring straight ahead. "I just hate stupid animals getting in the way. I don't like being slowed down by anything, that's all it was."
Vicky scrunched her mouth up. "There's no rush, you know." She said sternly. "Gaz, you're one of my most favourite people in the world. But since you've been driving around in this, you've become something else. It frightens me sometimes. Other people are noticing it too." He sighed, slightly embarrassed.
"I'm sorry. Maybe I just need a break or something. I haven't been very relaxed lately." Mockingly, her hand punched him very softly in the arm.
"Then relax, dummy. Be yourself."
They carried on for another minute down the road. He tried to focus on his breathing, and keeping at a steady speed. 'Be yourself' he kept mouthing. 'Be yourself'. They turned another corner, where they were near a public playground. Two young boys were kicking a football to each other, jeering and waving. Vicky's heart began to beat uncontrollably.
She guessed what would happen seconds before it did. One boy kicked the ball, too hard, as it flew into the middle of the road. "Be careful, Gaz." She said as she gripped his sleeve. One boy jogged to get it back. "Slow down." She shouted. Gary hit the car horn. He wasn't slowing down. He was speeding up, very quickly. The boy picked up the ball, just before he noticed the colossal roaring machine charging towards him. He was frozen to the spot in terror. "Gary!" Vicky screamed. She grabbed the wheel and flung it to the right, swerving the car into a hedge.
"Gaz." She whispered. "You need help. I want the old Gary Edwards back. You're not well." He stared straight ahead once again, trembling. "I'll help you get back to your old self, Gaz, but you need to help yourself too. You can't keep going on like this. You're gonna kill someone. That someone might even be you." She hobbled out the car and walked down the road. The boy started to sob. She stroked his head and spoke to him. Gary however took a few minutes to prise his fingers from the steering wheel. His right eye was sore, like it had been cut. Looking in the mirror he saw it was red raw. He turned the car and drove back home. He didn't realise until he got home that the car's right headlight had been broken by the sharp thorns of the hedge.
