Once you left White Rock, the roads were much wider. It was still early so there wasn’t much traffic yet. Papa drove slowly through the villages, and once past these rural townships he picked his speed up again.

The family had been on the road for three hours when it was decided that they would stop at the next service station. Besides filling the car up with petrol, they could use the rest rooms and get something to eat. The sandwiches had long been eaten.

“A little more than halfway there now,” Thulani grinned as he got behind the wheel again. “Is everybody strapped in and ready for the road again?”

“Yes Papa,” Clarah answered for herself and Prince. He was already beginning to look sleepy – he had just eaten a beef burger, chips and salad.

“Then we’re all ready to go,” Grace smiled. “Would you like me to drive for a while?”

“No love. I’m OK.” Men were always reluctant to let a woman drive when they were in the car, Grace thought, and reckoned it was because they liked to be in control.

They hadn’t got very far when there was a sign warning motorists of a couple of sharp bends ahead. Thulani drove slowly, as he knew from experience that these bends in the road could be very dangerous.

“Oh my goodness! Look over there.” Grace pointed to where there were some vehicles in the ravine down the side of the road. “Two cars have gone right through the barriers,” Grace gasped. “There are probably people hurt down there. The accident must have just happened!”

“I’ll call emergency services on my phone.” Thulani pulled off the road and took his phone out of his pocket. There was no signal.

“We’ve got to try and get down the slope,” Grace said. “We might be able to save some lives.”

Thulani nodded his head. “I’ll put our hazard lights on. That way if a car or another vehicle comes around the bend they will see the warning lights.”

Prince was fast asleep in the back seat. Grace heaved a huge sigh of relief. Clarah would stay with him.

“Be careful, Mama and Papa,” Clarah begged, as they headed down off the road.

“My husband is injured,” a frightened woman said to Grace and Thulani as soon as they arrived at the accident site. A dazed and bleeding man lay in the driver’s seat.

“I’m a nurse. I’ll take a look,” Grace reassured her.

“What happened?” Thulani asked her.

“We were driving around the bend when suddenly two cars sped up behind us. They kept hooting for us to move faster, but that was impossible.”

The woman was badly shaken up and her whole body was trembling.

She took several deep breaths before she began talking again. “I couldn’t believe it but the large Colt that you see over there drove up right behind us and pushed our car off the road! Then the next thing, a large white truck drove very fast into the back of the Colt.”

“Good heavens. Did the truck manage to stay on the road?” Thulani asked.

The woman swallowed hard. “It did. It stopped, and a man got out and climbed down here to the Colt. He was there for a few minutes and then he came over to our car. I warned my son to close his eyes and lie down on the back seat. The man looked suspicious; dangerous. I also closed my eyes and faked that I was hurt. He glanced around our car. Then he hurried back to the road, jumped into his vehicle and drove out of here very fast. It was all very strange.”

“It all happened very quickly,” a teenage boy said from the back seat. “Can I get out now, Mum?”

“This is my son, Tom. Please call me Leah, and my husband’s name is Geoffrey.”

“Have you got pain anywhere, Tom?” Grace asked.

“I don’t feel pain anywhere. It was very frightening though. I thought the driver of that car meant to kill us. He was driving like a maniac.”

Grace and Thulani shook their heads. “I’ll take a look at Geoffrey now.”

“I’m going to go look in the Colt,” Thulani said.

Grace put her hand gently round the back of Geoffrey’s head, feeling for injury. When she took the hand away, it was covered in blood.

“Have you got a clean towel or a piece of cloth?” Grace asked Leah.

“Yes.” Leah rummaged through her travelling bag and found a towel.

“I’m going to use it to stem the flow of blood,” Grace said.

A few minutes later Thulani came back from checking the Colt. “There’s nobody in the vehicle. Did you see anybody get out?” he asked, looking at mother and son.

“I was lying down on the back seat,” Tom said. “I was too afraid to open my eyes.”

“Me too,” Leah agreed with her son.

“How strange,” Thulani said. “When we get to the nearest town we’ll report the accident.”

“Geoffrey will be alright to move. We could drive him to the nearest hospital. Thulani,” Grace said. “What about our kids and Tom here? Do you think we can fit everybody into our car?”

“I don’t want to leave anybody here,” Thulani said. “It’s too dangerous on the road. We’ll get everybody in with a squeeze.”

Grace nodded her head.

A moment later Prince started screaming from the car. Clarah was doing her best to calm him down.

“I want Mama!” Prince cried.

“He won’t calm down until you go to him,” Thulani said. He’d been waiting for a moment to speak to his wife alone.

Grace showed Leah how to hold the towel to the back of her husband’s neck; she had no option but to go see to her son.

As soon as he was calm again Thulani said softly to her, “Turn your face towards me, Grace. Don’t look alarmed and please don’t panic. There’s something I need to tell you. I don’t want anybody else to hear.”

“What is it?” Grace asked calmly.

Thulani hesitated for a second. His heart was beating fast. He knew his wife was good in an emergency.

“The Colt has been involved in a robbery.”

“How do you know that?” she asked.

“There were a few bundles of cash thrown about on the back seat. The robbers must have left them in their haste to get away.”

***

Tell us what you think: Were Leah and Tom right to pretend to be injured and unconscious, rather than ‘bravely’ confront the driver of the Colt?