The Car
by: Alisa Didkovsky

It is a nice cool autumn day, the squirrels are storing nuts for the winter, and the birds are singing their last songs for the season. It is also a bit breezy outside so I am wearing the navy blue and maroon striped sweater that my grandmother had knitted for me last Christmas. I decided to take out my romance novel while I waited for my friend.

As I’m reading my novel I hear some pigeons in the background, I turn to look at one next to my foot. A nice grey color with a dark neck, it walks on bobbed its head sort of like a chicken. I go back to reading, and a few moments later I see a silver Saturn pull up in front of me. This was very peculiar.

I could not see anyone in the driver’s seat; it might have been because the windows were dark. Also, where did this car come from? There were no roads for it to drive straight into the park. I started wondering that maybe the car’s brakes were not working. Well, I was sure the driver might have needed some help.

“Excuse me sir, is something wrong with your car?” I asked. No reply, there was not even any signal that the driver or whoever was in the car heard me. “Is everything okay in there?” I ask again. Still, there was no reply. I started to get a bit frustrated with this unknown driver.

Then suddenly the car backed away a few feet, as if it were an animal. I did not know what to make of this. I took a step forward, the car backed up more. Although, if I made a step back, car would not budge. I decided that it was his own problem, so I sat down on the bench and went back to reading.

A few minutes later, the car drove up to me again. I noticed something else about this car, when it drove up the pigeons did not get scared. I thought of something else to ask the driver.

“Are you deaf!” I shouted, without even thinking that he would not hear me if he was. I felt somewhat silly and laughed to myself. “When my friend comes back I’ll surely tell this to him,” I said to myself, “asking a deaf man if he’s deaf, what a joke”.

Now I would have tapped on his window, but if he was deaf, there was no way of him hearing the tapping. I got up and stood in front of the car waving my arms around.

“Are you mad!” shouted an old women quickly walking passed.

“No madam! I do not believe that I am!” I replied. People these days, you try to help a deaf man in a car and they think you've gone insane. I went back to trying to get the man’s attention. No luck, maybe he was blind.

“Now why would a blind man be driving a car!” I shouted at my self. Now that was just ridiculous, a blind man driving a car. “HA - HA - HA!” I laughed again. Yet, that could be quite possible, but if he did not hear me nor see me, how do I get his attention.

Maybe everything was okay; he could have gotten permission from someone to drive here. Therefore, with this though in mind, I went back to reading. I read for another half hour, but I just could stand that car being there. I looked at my watch.

“FIVE THIRTY TWO! STEVEN WAS SUPPOSED TO BE HERE EIGHTEEN MINUTES AGO!” I shouted at myself. “Why is he late, Steven is never late! Maybe he got into a car accident; maybe this is his car, what color is his car! This car cannot be his; his is a yellow sports car not a rundown old lemon!”

A couple that was sitting near me quickly got their things and left. Maybe I’m just a little stressed out, yes that must be it. I have been getting overworked lately. Then the car drove to my right, it joined the pigeons.

“Maybe there’s a maniac inside the car who thinks that he’s a pigeon and must join with the other pigeons!” I said to myself. “A car that thinks it’s a pigeon, interesting.” Am I the joke master today, it seemed that everything I thought or said was funny.

“HAHA - HA - HE HE - HA!” I broke out in laughter. “HAHA - HA - HE HE - HA!”

I saw a man quickly get out his cellular phone and call someone. After he put it away, I went to ask if I could borrow it for a second. His hands were shaking pretty hard when he gave it to me. I dialed "nine - nine - six - five - two - three - three - two”, and a woman picked up the phone.

“Hello?” an old woman’s voice said on the phone.

“Hi, is Steven there?”

“Steven? Steven moved out about six years ago”
“Oh. Well that’s alright, good bye.” I had just missed him; he left six minutes ago, probably to come pick me up.

Then I looked back at the car, it was still there, there was also a woman throwing breadcrumbs at it.
“Why are you throwing bread at the car?” I was surprised to see that there was no car.
“Urm, what car would that be?” she said.
“This was a car, I saw it. It was right there!”
“Are you all right?”
“Yes, no! I’m not all right, there was a grey Saturn here! There was no pigeon!”

In the background, I heard the sirens of an ambulance.