Rachel Lincoln Sept. 13, 2002

English Ms. Gokturk

A Joyride to Remember

"Michael, are you sure this is a good idea?" My voice shook with such trepidation and the words came out meekly.

"C�mon baby, this is me you�re talking to. You ain�t gotta worry about a thing." His calm words smoothly slipped from his lips. I instantly felt at ease. I trusted him.

"Okay. If you say so."

"You�re not scared are you babe?"

"Nah, I�m cool," I responded, and those three words, "Nah I�m cool," were the last words to come out of my mouth before it happened.
It was approximately seven o� clock at night when the phone rang. I was at home, watching the television show, "Friend�s," wondering what my close pals and acquaintances were up to for the evening. I had been taking driver�s education over the summer and getting up at five thirty in the morning was taking a toll on me so I felt my eyelids getting heavy and I started to doze off. The phone ring startled me. My heart jumped and as an obvious reflex, I hopped up and ran for the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hey baby! It�s me!" The smooth sensual voice assured me it was Michael.

"Oh hey, what�s up?"

"Nothin�, but guess what?"

"What?"

"I just got my license and I have the corvette! I�m taking you out tonight!"

"Wow, congrats! Sounds like fun!" We agreed that eight thirty that evening would be a good time to meet. I quickly hopped into the shower, got dressed, and I was ready by eight twenty. I looked out through the creamy white colored blinds on the window in my room, I saw a beautifully sculpted shiny corvette. White. I looked over to who was driving it, and I see Michael.
I run to the bathroom to give myself one last look over. Make up was good; I smelled and dressed nicely. Wearing fitted blue jeans and a top I had gotten on the recent trip to Paris with my mother and "Cool Water for women" perfume. "I�m set." Gave myself a smile and I was out the door. Not only was I excited for him for getting his license but I also had a little crush on him. He was smooth, suave and very attractive. He was also a ball to hang around, always cracking jokes at every possible chance. What I also liked about him was the fact that we were able to have those long meaningful heart to heart talks. He was just a pleasure. I walk to the pearl of a car.

"Hop in," Michael said with a smile. "You�re lookin� good," he complimented me. I thanked him and thought to myself "I can definitely say the same about you." He was wearing a white and blue plaid short-sleeved button down shirt and worn out jeans that went well with the top. Gel in his hair and after-shave on his face. Smelled like "Tommy Hilfiger", my favorite scent on a guy.

"You ready babe?"

"Yeah I am." And we were off.
We drove out of my driveway and went to the main roads of the town, Port Washington. Michael put the top of the corvette down. From waist, up was bare to nature. The skies were so clear; it was a beautiful dark blue. I was not able to distinguish a single cloud in the sky. Stars were filling up our view of above, and the almost full moon, shone brightly.

"Nice night out huh?" Michael said with enthusiasm.

"Yeah, It sure is," I replied with the same pep of energy in my voice. We drove off the main road and drove off into a lone road. There weren�t many streetlights on this particular road, so it was dark and the visibility was poor. When you looked straight ahead, you�d think this road went on forever and ever.

"Where are we going," I asked in curiosity.

"I don�t have an idea, but I don�t care as long as I got my Corvette and you." He answered my question and looked at me with seductive eyes. I wanted to melt in a huge puddle, but I resisted the urge to and just smiled back at him. I looked into the sideview mirror on my side and I saw headlights coming behind us.

"Looks like we�re not the only ones," I commented on the uninvited guest in the back of us. Michael looks in his rearview mirror and agreed.

"Yeah, I guess we aren�t." The headlights get closer and closer till we were side by side on the double lane road. The stranger began to roll down the windows of his car, an old beaten down light blue sedan. We didn�t know what to expect until we realized he was no stranger after all. It was Michael�s friend from his catholic school. Peter. I had met him before on several occasions, I thought he was slightly nutty, but a nice guy overall. Peter came across a daredevil. He was always talking about dumb stunts that he had done using his bike and all sorts of things he could find to launch himself off of. He also spoke of the times he had set himself on fire just for the amusement of it. I had hoped he didn�t influence Michael with those actions of his.

"Yo! What up dog?!" Peter had yelled through his open window.

"Hey man, check out the hot ride," Michael answered his buddy.

"I know man, that�s one sweet ride. Say I�ve got an idea, think you�re up for it?" he asked with a rebel look in his eyes.

"What is it?"

"Why don�t we have a friendly competition. There�s no one around so let�s have a little race. What do you say to that?" Peter said that, and smiled at himself for having apparently, such a brilliant idea. Michael seemed warily at first but you could see his interest in Peter�s idea.

"What do you think babe?" Michael turned to me. I was going to answer negatively and tell him it was a bad idea, but he smiled at me, his baby blue eyes bore into mine. I couldn�t say no.

"Yeah sure, let�s do it." His face brightened up as he told his danger-loving friend that he was up for the challenge.

The racing began and after my hesitation to the race, I finally relaxed a little after a couple minutes.

"Nothing bad can happen to me," I thought to myself. After the words "Nah, I�m cool." escaped my lips when Michael had asked me if I was nervous about the competition, he pumped up the accelerator, both friends were head to head, laughing with glee. Although I knew, in the back of my mind, it wasn�t the best idea, I was still enjoying myself. It was exhilarating in a way, to go over 90 miles per hour. The racing went on for a while. A yellow sign had passed but we were going way too fast to be able to make out what the sign was for so we ignored it until we reached a sharp turn. When we got to the unexpected curve, he lost grip of the car and the car spun out of control. He tried to slam the brakes, but there was no stopping it. We were going to hit the railing. I saw it coming. Life passed before my eyes. I thought back specifically to my seventh birthday party, at which were all of my family members and best friends all crowded around me at my humble home while I blew out the candles on my birthday cake. I remembered that at that moment, I was completely and truly happy. The railing was getting closer and closer, wind rushing in my face, the trees in the background were flying by in a giant green blur. My fist holding on to the seat of the car. My knuckles were turning white, my whole body felt numb. I felt powerless and I felt I had to deal with whatever was coming. At that moment, I had regretted blowing off my concerns for speeding. I didn�t have time to look to the right of me to see how Michael was doing. I didn�t even have time to scream. Then we crashed.

The car hit the railing, I felt myself being projectile out of the car yet I stayed inside. The two of us were luckily wearing our seatbelts. The seatbelt cut into my skin. I didn�t feel any pain. I was too astonished. I looked to the right of me and saw Michael, hands to his chest and trying to catch his breath.

"Man, are you okay!" cried Michael as he turned to look at me, without the smoothness in his voice. His voice was shaky and he trembled. I looked down to where it began to hurt. I saw a large gaping cut on my forearm. I was not so sure how I had received it. I looked up at Michael, tears filling up my eyes.

"Yeah I�m fine what about you?" I managed to say even though I was in a state of shock and bewilderment. Michael took a look at what the impact did to the once perfect car and started to scream obscenities.

"I�m fine but the car isn�t!" he answered in a tight panicked voice. His face was as pale as fresh fallen snow in the winter and his eyes were red and blood shot.