“You live far. Never have I ever gotten tired of driving before but the trip to this side made me very tired. But you guys keep doing the same: coming back,” he said.

“Well, I guess we are used to it now.” I said.

The car then demanded that we wear seat belts like the cars in the movies do. I was yet again impressed.
As he started the engine he lowered the handbrake and as we were about to take off, someone came out of the house and called him. He switched the engine off and left the handbrake as it was.

“Let me check why they are calling me, I will be right back,” he said.

Where we were was a bit steep and thus it was risky to leave a car without pulling the handbrake. Just after thinking about that the car started to move.

“Bhuti the car is moving!” panicked Zandi. I responded with a very casual response as I was busy appreciating the beauty of the interior of the car.

“Just pull the handbrake,” I responded.

Not realising that the handbrake can be hard as I struggle a bit too to pull it. For a girl it must be as twice as hard, I hope this doesn’t make me a sexist, but I didn’t think of it then. And yes I was wrong to tell her to do that as she tried but couldn’t pull it.

“Bhuti ayivumi,” she said.

The car started to move faster and I too panicked and so did other people who were outside. The hooting from other cars did not make the situation easy but worsened it. I had to act and act very fast.

“Bhuti we will crash!” she shouted.

I panicked even more but I had to at least assure her that we will be fine even though I wasn’t sure too.

“Zandi shut up! Don’t be scared. Do I look scared?” I tried to be convincing as I was trying to take out the seat belt and move to the front.

“Ewe you look scared.” She said.

Damn! I wasn’t that convincing after all and that is no response you expect when trying to save someone’s life. At least they should motivate you so that you execute whatever that you want to execute in order for them to survive.

People started screaming as the car moved even faster and got closer to the intersection which was much busier. What was I going to say if something bad happened to her and me and more scarily to the car?

The words “Life above all” appeared in my mind. Things are replaceable and lives are not. I knew what was important and what was not.

Only then did Tshepang come out of the house as his car was quickly going to crash at the intersection. He ran towards it. Only then did people realise they must act and maybe save us but it was too late. Even if they were as fast as The Flash no one was going to reach us before the busy intersection.

With all this happening I finally got to the driver’s seat and the car was reversing faster and faster. I forgot that, I steered the steering wheel and I faced in front and tried to pull the handbrake nothing was happening. I tried again and nothing was happening.

When I looked at the rear-view mirror I saw we were getting close to the intersection and in about 15 seconds we would be in the middle of it. I didn’t know what to do and hitting the brakes too was far from my mind and so I had given up then and there.

Because of the construction taking place on the main road, there were huge concrete blocks in and around the road which was one reason behind the traffic that day. One pipe was placed right in the middle of the road and we were heading straight for it t.

***

Tell us what you think: What would you have tried to do to stop the car? Would you jump out or wait for impact?