The Sopranos: Caliper Story

EPISODE ONE (Part Two)

EPISODE ONE (Part Two)

     I smile as I move through them, being the point of the arrow. I look at my rearview mirror to see the crew shifting positions so gracefully as if we’d practiced it, to repair the arrow formation. 

     That’s what happens when you’re so in sync with your crew. You just have this unspoken harmony. And I won’t forget to mention that we all were just awesome racers.

     “Don’t call me babe on the road.” I warn playfully. “Or else, I’ll kick your ass.”

     “I’d like to see you try!” He laughs, I hear his Mercedes’ engine growing louder, and I see him zooming past me.

     “No fair!” I scream, smiling and I stomp on the gas.

     Jay and I were nose to nose, my Agera slowly inching farther from his bumper. Behind us, the crew blossomed out of their formation and followed, the boys behind Jay and the girls behind me.

     “Battle of the sexes?” Jay asked, furrowing a brow. He looked funny when he did that.

     “It’s not a battle if us girls are better. Babe.” I jab jokingly, and as if on cue, Jess and Courtney are beside me. “Nitrous.” I tell them, the three of us activate our nitrous switches, and in the rearview mirror the nitrous glowed out from the exhaust systems of our cars, leaving a trail of brilliance behind the boys.

     “You know Court, if Ryan doesn’t catch up to us any time soon, maybe you should break up with him!” I kid,

     “What?!” I hear Ryan’s panicked voice in my intercom. Courtney laughs but doesn’t say anything back to Ryan to scare him.

     I look to my left and see Jess’ blue Ford GT and I see her smiling at me through her window. 

     “Birch, watch out!” Jay yells, I look back at the road, my breath catches in my throat. 

     “Jess, Court, move!” I yell. A bright set of headlights was inches from my Agera.

     It all happened too fast. I stomp on the brake, my wheels protest loudly and Jess and Court move instinctively. I change the gears to reverse and I pull the steering wheel to the left, and the Agera dives backwards behind Jess’ Ford just as the pair of headlights slides through, almost ramming through us.

     Before my rear bumper hit the road’s divider, I press on the clutch and stomp on the brake. I pull the shift stick to neutral and I breathe, unable to believe that all of that happened in what seemed like a couple of seconds. 

      And it proved that speed could kill.

     I could feel the wet strands of my hair sticking to my slick forehead. My mouth fell open as my mind reregistered the panic and the impact that could have been delivered onto my body. I tried to regain my breathing, but I couldn’t.

      From the flashing lights above the vehicle that almost crashed into me, I realized that it was a cop car, trying to break up our little celebration. My crew’s voices echoed all around me, all of them asking if I were okay, but I sat there inside my vehicle that sat on the side of the road, its tires had left skid marks on the road.

     “Birch, we gotta go. Keep driving!” Someone warns, but I was too shocked to even differentiate which voice belonged to who. I’d gone into a paralyzed stupor.

     So I sat there, wide eyed and terrified. From the corner of my eyes, I see that my friends were neither going, no leaving, as if they didn’t know what to do.