I Want To Drive
“ Nana I want to drive your car. Can I please drive it?” Said Caydence.
“Not until you are old enough. Your only thirteen years old. You need to be at least sixteen to drive in New York Caydence.” Replied Nana.
“Well my grandpa let me drive and I was only six. I sat in his lap and he let me drive.”
“He let you drive his lawn tractor with you sitting in his lap. He didn’t let you drive his car.”
“Oh yes he did, Nana, I drove his car sitting in his lap! You were at work and my mom was busy. And he let me drive. I drove all the way to the top of the hill and back! Mom was upset when she found out! But it was worth it, because it was exciting and great fun! I imagined I was driving a big race car zooming around the track!”
Caydence closed her eyes and she could see her Dad working on a big beautiful powerful race car. When he was finished he put her into the drivers seat and she pretended to drive as she pressed the accelerator. The engine spat with a tremendous roar with hundreds of horse power roaring through the engine and exhaust system. Although she had been on the race track many times with her dad it still excited her to hear the engine roar as it came to life.
Her dad was a car body expert who designed and built race car bodies that surrounded the powerful engines which powered the race car around the race tracks as the driver attempted to beat the other drivers in high speed races. Her dad had other mechanic skills but that was his main job. He also assisted the race team when the driver came in for a pit stop. Because she was at the shop or at the race track often, with her dad, she dreamed of driving the big race cars. As a result, any time she was allowed to sit behind the wheel of a car she imagined herself as a race driver roaring around the race track. On this particular day she was sitting in her grandpa Jerry’s lap pretending to drive the car up the hill and back.
“Let’s go faster!” Caydence urged her grandpa, as they slowly drove up the hill. “I want to go faster like my dads race cars!”
Even though she was sitting in her grandpas lap steering the car she could barely see through the steering wheel and the road ahead. But, in her mind she was zooming around a race track ahead of all the other drivers. She furiously twisted and turned the steering wheel as she sped around turns and avoided the slower drivers to stay in the lead. They raced up the hill ahead of the other drivers with a roar, she shifted down as she entered the hair pin curve, nearly lost control of the car as the tires spun in the gravel when she came out of the hair pin curve she accelerated up the hill zigging and zagging to keep other drivers from passing and roared out of sight as they topped the hill.
“Careful Caydence there is another set of curves coming up just ahead you will need to watch out for deer and raccoon’s, there may even be a Great Grey Owl flying low across the road. That area is where those animals and birds hang out. Watch out! You almost hit a squirrel barreling across the road. Maybe we should slow a bit.” Begged Grandpa.
“Oh, no we can’t slow down grandpa. No matter what jumps out in front of us. We can’t let the other drivers catch up!” Shouted Caydence, over the roar of the engine.
They zoomed through the curves and accelerated again on the level surface, then slowed abruptly almost to a stop to make the ninety degree left turn and accelerated down the short hill past the fishing pond where the beaver lodges were located and on to the end of the track by the old house where Caydence needed to negotiate a complete turn around before retracing the return back to the finish line. After a wide swing to the right and a short back up she accelerated back toward the pond. They zipped by the pond and up the hill to then slowed to make a sharp right ninety degree turn and on to the “ESS’S” before shooting down the straight away and starting down the dangerous hill into the hair pin curve again. The trip back down the course was more perilous than the trip up because now they had to avoid all the drivers coming up the hill that had been had left behind. It took all the driving skills that Caydence could muster to keep the car on the road as her little legs and feet dangled over the edge of the seat between her grandpas legs. She was furiously pumping the brakes and gunning the car downward toward the finish line at the bottom of the hill at grandpas driveway. A few times the car almost spun out of control and they almost hit the deer grandpa had warned her about. It was a nip and tuck race as she swerved around the hair pin curve again almost sliding the car into the steep gully into the creek. She spun the car right and then left to avoid the other drivers and watched one spin out in her rear view mirror. But, her expert driving skills brought her and her grandpa through all the danger and she was the winner in record time.
“Wow, that was fun grandpa! Can we do it again tomorrow?”
But , instead of hearing her grandpas voice she heard her Nana speaking, bringing her out of her reverie, as she heard her Nana say: “I’ll think about it Caydence. I’ll let you know tomorrow. Maybe tomorrow we will drive up the hill and I’ll let you drive.”
“But, Nana I want to drive now. Please can I drive now?”
“Oh, all right, Caydence, I think it will be all right for you to drive on our dirt road. There should be no other drivers on the road at this time of day. You go get in the drivers seat. I’ll go get the keys to the car. You can drive up the road and back.”
Nana got in the passenger seat and handedCaydence the keys to the car, she did not know what she was in for, as Caydence started the car and quickly jammed the accelerator to the floor starting her second “race” up the hill!
Jerry Marvel
April 2021