“Do you think that’s OK? Watching is one thing, but racing is something else. Do you even know how to drive like that?” Miriam asked. She was scared now. She wasn’t ready for something like this.

“I’ve driven the car. I’ll be fine. Where can I get experience racing if not here? It’s the only place. You stay with Dino. I’ll be fine.” He handed her R100. “Go and bet on me so I get some extra good luck.”

He kissed her and climbed into the car. She watched him drive over to the queue. He was in the fifth pair of racers. Miriam looked anxiously at Dino. She could see he was not comfortable with the decision he’d made; it showed on his face. But when he saw Miriam looking at him he smiled and patted her on the shoulder.

“He’ll be fine. He’s a good driver. Nothing’s going to happen.”

Miriam thought to herself that he was trying to reassure himself as much as her.

They walked over to the motorway and found a place about halfway down, where they could see both the start and the finish line. The security men were mostly at the one end, guiding any ordinary cars into the single lane. But the traffic was sparse.

Everything will be fine, Miriam told herself

Suddenly Felix was up and Miriam realised she’d forgotten to place the bet. She shook it off. It didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered now was that Felix got safely through this race.

The engines revved and the starter positioned himself between the two cars, his hands up. There was a squeal of tyres and they were off. The other car immediately took the lead, but Felix was only half a car length behind. He wasn’t doing too badly. Miriam started to feel better.

Everyone was watching the cars coming along the road, looking up the track, so they didn’t notice something had changed further down.

In the lane for the ordinary, non-racing traffic, a man appeared. He seemed to want to cross the road. By the time Miriam turned her head, it was already too late. The racers were going too fast for their brakes ever to stop them in time – and the man was in the road.

There was a piercing squeal of tyres as Felix, the driver closest to the man, slammed on his brakes. People screamed. The other racer managed to veer around the walking man and pass him, but Felix’s car, now in a spin from the sudden braking, hit the man with nearly maximum force. The man flew across the road and his body disappeared into the tall grass.

Everything became silent; at least that was how it appeared to Miriam. She saw Felix get out of his car and run into the tall grass at the side of the road. People were streaming down the motorway toward where the accident happened. Miriam looked next to her and Dino was gone, then she looked up and saw he was already with Felix. They were in the grass, bending down where the man had landed.

For a moment Miriam couldn’t move. She didn’t want to know what she would see when she joined Felix and Dino. Everything appeared unreal. She walked slowly toward them. She hoped maybe it was … unreal. Maybe it was a horrible dream. But then she could hear the people; she could feel the cool night air on her face. It was not a dream.

Felix was crying. He was bent over, weeping into his hands. Dino stood next to him. The security men told the people to disperse. They pushed them away. Soon it was only Petros, Dino, Felix and Miriam left at the scene.

“I’ll bring the car. We’ll take him to the hospital,” Petros said.

Miriam stood looking down at the old man. He was wearing pyjamas and a dirty dressing gown. He must be homeless, she thought. Who else would walk around like that? He must have been confused and wandered onto the motorway by accident. She looked down at him and the awkward way he lay and she knew a hospital could not help this man.

Petros and Dino put the man in Dino’s car. Dino drove. Miriam and Felix sat squashed together in the front, Petros in the back with the old man. Nobody spoke.

They drove out of Cape Town. They were heading into the mountains. They weren’t going to any hospital.

Petros said, “Turn here.”

Dino did as he was instructed. They drove onto a gravel road that went out to a lookout over a valley. Miriam didn’t want to know what was happening. It was all so horrible.

Dino stopped the car and got out. He and Petros carried the old man to the edge of the lookout and threw him down into the valley. Miriam was surprised that there was no sound, only the thin tinkle of a few loose gravel stones that followed the old man to his final resting spot somewhere down below. The silence of his falling seemed to make it all worse.

Felix had been in a kind of trance, but when Dino came back into the car he grabbed his arm. “We can’t do this! It’s not right!”

Dino shook his arm off. “What else can we do? He’s only a bergie. No-one will even know he died. This is our only option.”

*****

Tell us what you think: Have Dino and Petros done the right thing? What would you have done? Does it make any difference if the dead man is homeless or not?