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With a surge we shot forward then stalled to a stop.
“I think I have whiplash,” Alice moaned from the back. “Is there a chiropractor at the end of this drive? I’m going to need one at this rate.”
“You can do this, Doris. Take your time,” Sylvie encouraged me.
Now the jitters took hold of my stomach, and I worried I had been wrong in thinking I could drive the old car. “Maybe I should let Marge drive.”
“Thank God,” Marge answered and started to open her door, but Sylvie reached forward and grabbed her shoulder.
“No. Doris wants to drive. Let’s give her another chance. Come on, Doris. You can do this.”
I took a deep breath then went over Marge’s instructions in my head. After firing up the engine, I put my feet on the pedals and started shifting the weight from one to the other like she’d said. I stepped harder on the gas this time than the last to be sure I didn’t stall, and instead of lurching forward and stalling out, we took off with a squeal of the tires.
“I’m doing it! I’m doing it!” I cried out as we flew out of the circular driveway and onto the long one taking us back to the road.
“You’re doing it!” Sylvie cheered me on.
“Whiplash. I literally have whiplash,” Alice breathed out. “Now that we’re going, don’t crash the damn thing.”
“Cripes. I’m not normally one to say ‘slow down’ but slow down Doris! We aren’t in the Indy 500!”
“Sorry. I just wanted to make sure I didn’t stall out again,” I said as I lightened up on the gas.
Proud that I’d gotten going, and scared to stop and start again, when we reached the road and I could see clearly that no traffic was coming from either direction, I slowed down and kept going as I made the left-hand turn. Grinning widely when we hit the open road, I steered the car along the winding road twisting into the Scottish countryside.
“Wrong side of the road!” Marge shouted.
“Oh, shoot!” I swerved to the opposite lane. With a sheepish smile, I looked over and said, “Oops.”
“We’re gonna die,” she mumbled.
Ignoring her naysaying comments, I put my focus back on the road and enjoyed the scenery around us as I drove along. Though it was winter in Scotland, it was still green with no snow, and much milder than I had been accustomed to growing up in Minnesota. Winter to me meant temperatures in the negatives with storms covering everything in deep snow regularly. We rarely saw a blade of grass until April. This didn’t feel like winter, but more like spring to me.
“About ten miles farther down this road, and then we’ll reach the town,” Sylvie said after we’d driven a short while.
I glanced in my mirror to see her checking her phone. “So, I go straight?”
“Yes. Go straight.”
Marge looked over at me. “And by straight, she means follow the road, Doris. If the road turns, you turn. Don’t just drive straight off into that field ahead.”
“I know what she means.” I shot Marge a look. “I’m not stupid.”
“Just being clear,” Marge retorted. “Like this turn. Follow it.”
I looked away from her toward the sharp turn veering right. As I took it, I started back into the opposite lane that felt normal for me to drive in.
“Wrong lane!” the girls shouted in unison.
“Oops!” I jerked the wheel, and we swerved back into the correct lane. When I made it around the corner, my eyes went big when a wall of white sheep appeared in front of me.
“Sheep!” Marge shouted. “Look out!”
I screamed as I reached for the shifter to slow down, but I panicked as we barreled straight at them.
“Brake, Doris! Brake!” Sylvie shouted behind me.
My heart jumped into my throat as I glanced down at the shifter. “I forgot how to downshift!”
