crash course

Yesterday, my father leased a new car - a black 2010 Chevy Malibu.

Tonight, my parents had some friends over for dinner. They made steak, some sort of vegetable mix involving lots of asparagus (I just spent at least a solid minute trying to figure out how to spell this word), scallop, spinach salad and bread. I got hungry sitting up in my room, so I decided to wander downstairs and meet their guests, and soon found myself eating dinner with my parents and their friends. I mostly just sat listening while my Dad talked business with his former colleague - they exchanged gossip regarding different executives and company strategies around the country, excoriating a few people they used to work with who were "bad men." Not having much to contribute to this conversation, but still finding it somewhat interesting, I lingered on at the table for about half an hour after I ate my food before going back up to my room.

Then it was time to drive to Lindsay's. After a boring day of doing homework and sitting around, I was finally going to hang out with some friends. I gave a friendly goodbye to my parents' guests and headed for the brand new car, unlocking it, slipping in through the rain, and quickly beginning to back out from the very top of the driveway.

The one complaint I have about this car is that there is limited visibility out the back window. I thought about this as, while backing out at a swift speed, I kept my head turned behind me trying to see what was approaching. At some point, a loud crash informed met hat I had smacked into something. Still looking out the back window, I could not see what I had hit, so I drove back up to the top of the driveway.

Getting out of the car, I was able to appreciate what I had done: I had smashed into my parents' guests' car, testing the waters with my dad's new Malibu.

I grabbed the flashlight from my trunk, hoping, wishfully thinking that perhaps I hadn't done much damage after all, and immediately walked down to the bottom of the driveway in the drizzling, cold rain to inspect the effects of my failure to utilize the side-mirror.

There was a huge scratch across the car. I tried in vain to wipe it away with my hand - maybe it's just mud!, I thought - but it stayed put. The scratch on my Dad's car wasn't going anywhere either. I knew what I had to do now, but I wanted a way out of the necessity of walking back into the dining room and telling these people that I had just slammed into the front of their parked car. Maybe I could just drive away. It was dark out. They'd never notice.

I walked into the house through the garage door. My youngest sister was standing in front of me. "I hit their car," I whispered. She later said that she had never seen my eyes so wide with horror. She said maybe we could text my Mom and get her to come into the kitchen from the dining room and tell us what to do. Yes, I thought, Mom will fix this, and I can leave. But that was a stupid thought - almost as absurd as not looking at the side-mirror, or not glancing to see if there was a car parked behind me in the driveway.

My Mom appeared just then in the kitchen. I told her what happened. She laughed for a moment. We both walked into the dining room.

"He just - " she said.

"I'm really sorry, but I just backed into your car in the driveway," I said quietly, looking down at the carpet, out the window across the room, at the dishes on the table, at the ceiling.

"Ah!" exclaimed the man, probably trying not to sound mad. "Well let's go and have a look at it huh!"

"I don't think there is much damage - just a scratch."

"At least it's not all that damaged, just a scratch there," I continued once outside.

Half the front was totally pushed back into the rest of the car.

The whole time we looked at it I apologized while making the occasional excuse that there wasn't much visibility through the rear window.

"Fucking kid," I envisioned him grumbling to his wife as they drove home. "Doesn't even know how to use a side-mirror, can't even back out of his own god damned driveway. No wonder he got rejected from that grad school like he said."

This is me - less than two short months away from graduating from college, applying for M.A. programs and occasionally running into parked cars.