Jennifer gasped in sudden, heart-stopping panic. Braking desperately she attempted to avoid
the shrouded woman who appeared directly in front of her car. However, her attempt was
unsuccessful and the mini ploughed straight into the figure.
The sudden stop flung her forward against the seatbelt. Her glasses flew off her face and the
bags of groceries on the back seat scattered everywhere, rolling and bouncing about, spilling
contents across the inside of her car. Dimly, she heard a second screech of tyres and felt a
hard jolt as whoever had been tailgating her, smashed into the back of her car, propelling it
forward. That last impact was too much for the frayed safety belt and it tore. She lurched
backwards, catching her head painfully on the side window. For a moment, she saw stars and
then blacked out.
After regaining consciousness, she turned the door handle and she half fell from the car to
encounter the wrathful expression of Dave the local plumber.
“Geezus Jen! Stop in the middle of the road, why don’t ya?” he yelled, whilst pointing back
at his four-wheel drive. “Good thing my bull bar took the impact. Do ya know how much it
costs to replace a radiator? Do ya? Do ya?”
Jen shook her head and dazed, staggered to her feet. She sagged against the side of her
elderly mini, her head thumping painfully.
“Where is she?” Jen demanded through the pain.
“Eh, you’re hurt then?” Dave, his anger dissipating, forgot his own troubles for a moment as
he regarded the small and slight older woman propping herself against the now misshapen
mini.
“My head hurts,” Jen said, her fingers gingerly exploring the tender lump which was rapidly
forming. She looked around again, “Where is she?”
“Who?”
“The woman, I think...I hit a woman”
Dave looked around, “What woman?” He checked the front of her car, “There’s no woman
here.”
Dave shook his head and motioned her to move away from the car. “Come on sit ya ‘self on
the footpath while I move our cars out of the way. We’re holding up traffic in town.”
Looking back, Jen saw a small line-up of cars; the drivers either peering curiously at her and
Dave, or impatiently leaning on their horns. Sighing, she allowed herself to be steered to the
curb and she abruptly sat on the cracked concrete slabs of the footpath.
“Wait here....” Dave told her, “I’ll be back in a tick.”
Jen watched him get into her car and move it to the side of the road. Within a few minutes,
his big four-wheel drive pulled up next to her.
Dave leaned out of his car window and called to her, “Look, ya car is over there. I’ve locked
it and here are the keys.” He tossed her car keys out the window and they landed in her lap.
“I’ve rung emergency and they‘re on their way. I’d wait for the police, but I have a client
with a flooded kitchen and I’m already late. I’ll get in touch with the police after my
appointment.”
He stared at her quizzically, “Are you sure there was a woman?”
She shrugged and shook her head. Strangely, the memory of the woman was rapidly fading
from her mind. Jen tried hard to remember, but every time she tried to recollect what she saw,
the memory seemed to slide away. To make it worse she could not think past the crippling
headache.
“Well, I didn’t see anything, and there was nothing under your car.”
Jen nodded, with her eyes half closed against the painful thump, thump inside her head.
