Leah Francis : Finding the Way contents

Drive Time

I'm on Norfolk Island overlooking the bay near the old gaol.

I see two people in a car snaking across the road at the water's edge. She's driving, but his hand remains almost on the wheel. They're doing a U-ey. He has taken the wheel, but she's clutching it too. She's still driving. She looks amused. He seems tense, half-afraid. They're close to the prison wall. Now she's made a sharp right-angle turn. They're heading straight for that wall. They'll crash! He pushes her hands away, grabs the wheel.

He makes a hard left. They're on the road again, driving straight down the middle. She's gathering speed. He spins the wheel to the left to avoid an approaching car. They're lucky to be alive, these two.

Now they're laughing at their near-miss. This is amazing!

She has to be drunk, or blind, or something. Blind drunk, maybe. Yet he doesn't look at all suicidal, a­nd he doesn't seem to be angry.

Keep your feet on the pedals, keep your hands on the wheel.

Feel the power increasing as you speed ahead.

The car stops with a screech. She gets out of the driver's seat. There's something weird about her all right.

He walks to her and takes her arm. I can see her face full on now. They're laughing together and, ... she's blind all right. Blind as blind. Blind as a bat. Even though she's holding his arm she almost trips over a couple of stones.

Well, that's it. I've seen everything now!

But she hasn't seen a thing!

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