h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

...with a song

For some reason, this song popped up in my head yesterday and kept playing all day. If you've lived in happy ignorance about this song, here's the remedy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtfZbj4J71A

Anyway, the words 'saved my life' triggered a memory. Now, I'm sure I've told this story elsewhere on h2g2, but I've forgotten the details. Besides, I think a story gets better the more times it gets told, embellishing it a bit each time, using different turn of words, rephrasing, emphasizing differently. So here goes.

Many years ago, while my brother was doing his military duty, I got to borrow his car on the condition that I picked him up and dropped him off at the regiment whenever he had a weekend off.

The car was a small, blue Simca. You knew when you were starting to exceed the speed limit on the motorway, because the steering wheel would start to vibrate. Accelerating took eons.

Late one Sunday evening I was on my way home after dropping off my brother. The only company I had on the road was the occasional lorry.

I caught up with a lorry and started övertaking it on the left side, hitting the pedal to the metal. The lorry driver kept to the side.

Suddenly, he started blinking left. I hit the breaks and slid back down behind the lorry, wondering what the was happening, since there was no crossing in sight.

A moment later a car came racing at full speed out of the woods from some dirt road. It didn't even slow down when driving onto the highway, speeding past me in the opposite direction.

I hadn't seen its headlights due to the shrubbery and trees but the lorry driver, from his vantage point, had spotted it racing towards the road.

It left me feeling a bit rattled, so I took the time to calm down a bit before trying to overtake the lorry again. All went well this time, and I thanked the driver twice, blinking left-right-left-right and he flashed 'you're welcome' twice with the full beam light.

I shudder to think of the frontal crash that would most probably have been the result had I still been driving alongside the lorry when that idiot came racing.

Wow that's some story. It made me go cold. Thank goodness for that lorry driver's quick thinking!

Deb

Things like that stay with your forever don't they Titania? I am so glad you lived to tell the tale!

It's a while afterwards when it really hits you, isn't it? For the first 5 - 10 minutes you're fine, then you get that awful feeling in your stomach. And, as you've demonstrated, you certainly never forget the incident!

Our present car doesn't have much pulling power and I sometimes feel queasy when I want to get away fast and it takes ages, with other vehicles bearing down on me in the mean time. I wish I could get it to react faster.

Anyway, that lorry driver certainly saved your life and we're very grateful to him.