The Race

‘When do you feel the best adrenaline rush? ……’

‘When you are on a roller coaster ride, when paragliding or bungee jumping?’

I looked at Michael and thrust the beer can towards him. He pressed open the flap and the beer started oozing out under the pressure.

‘I feel it like this when I race my car at 150kmph’

‘Hey good idea dude, why don’t we race tonight?’

‘You will lose’ I told him, ‘No, you will lose Tommy’ chucking the empty beer can at me.

11:30 PM, Jubilee road
‘The weather is wonderful tonight, with no signs of any rain, and most ideal conditions for a race. And here comes Tommy, most respected driver and a loser’ Mikheal winked.

‘Man, this Michael is a bloody … got to beat the ass’ rolling his eyes, he told himself.

‘Mick, take care that the police don’t catch hold of you’

‘Don’t worry pal, I have removed my number plate, and request you to do the same, even in case they are behind us, we should sneak into some smaller roads, no problem, we can escape’

11:45 PM, Jubilee road
‘I have synchronized both our clocks. When the time strikes 11:50, we are gonna start. We will race around the KBR Park. Three laps in all. And the first one to reach this point is the winner and remember, no crisscrossing or blocking the paths as it might prove to be very dangerous’

‘Done!!! ’ I told him tightening my shoe lace.

The race was about to start. I looked at Mick and he was already too excited. I prayed to god, as the clock ticked slowly to 11:50 and so did my heart which started pounding.

‘On your mark, get set….’ Mick shouted at the top of his voice, and his engine already roared with the wheels running up the revs and lots of smoke emanating from the static tyres.

11:50 PM, Jubilee road
‘…GO….’ And his Octavia throttled to a flying start reaching 40 kmph in just 3 seconds flat and my Civic followed him closely reaching 50 kmph in just 4 seconds flat.

With both the cars on a very close trail, I knew it isn’t gonna be a very easy one as I had imagined.

Within 15 seconds from the start we were cruising at 100 kmph each, with my car in lead for the first few seconds and then his car. Side by side we looked at each other.

The cars raced to 120 kmph in another 5 seconds.

And then I shifted to the top gear, and pressed on the accelerator, releasing the clutch. Mick dint lose anytime. Still in his fourth gear he climbed to a top notch 130kmph and was in an impregnable state. As my car raced to 130kmph, I saw Mick grooving to approx. 140kmph and he just flew by me.

The trees and the lamp posts seemed to move back in a hurry. ‘Man, this was the best adrenaline rush I could ever have’, I told myself ‘Thanks old pal’

As I increased my speed to 150kmph, I could see two ambers trying to get blown down. Mick’s car is in the visible horizon. And I pressed on the gas, gripping the wheel. His Octavia seemed to respond slowly at this speed and I was closing on him.

In another 30 seconds, I almost caught him, and was driving by his side, parallely. I turned towards him and he pointed out to me something. Setting back my gaze on the road, I could see a vehicle parked on my linear path at about 100 meters. I removed my feet off the accelerator and pressed hard the brake pedal hard and pulled the hand brake.

11:55 PM Birmingham road
My car came to a screeching halt, before I saw Mick showing his finger to me and dashing off at full throttle.

‘Phew, that was damn close, and damn, I lost the race’

Without much thinking I again raced my car along the road, hoping to find Mick. But I never saw him till I completed my first lap.

12:15 AM Birmingham road
In the second lap, I again saw his car, and with revived vitality, I raced my car.

120… 140… 160… and the engine was rattling like hell, and I suddenly cut across the lane and overtook Mick.

I showed him my finger then, when I saw an intense beam of light coming in my direction and then ………

The next day, newspaper reports read “Two unidentified young men were killed in two separate road accidents. It seemed that they were racing against each other when one of them in an Octavia lost control at approx. 11:55 PM and the other, a Civic was hit by a speeding truck at approx. 12:15 AM….”