Night ride

Another tiring Tuesday that Juliano had won, driving home and
listening to the 1989 discography of the Rolling Stones in the
last volume, feeling uneasy about the left speaker that had
"burst" more than half a year ago.
After almost running over a little boy who was going after his
ball and losing the rest of the patience he still had, he said
between his teeth:
- Tonight I gotta get the Caravan.
His heart raced when he saw the small house he lived in with his
wife and 4-year-old daughter Rebecca. Rebecca caught the site of
the 2010 Toyota Prius and came screaming for her father, who, as
if by a touch of magic, felt completely refreshed from the hard
10 hours in the accounting office where he worked.

He got out of the car and gave her a tight hug, sniffed her
little head as he loved to do and went to give his long-awaited
kiss to his wife Jessica.
Juliano was a short man and slightly overweight, he was
practically bald and never heard that it was "a feast for the
eyes". But everyone loved Juliano, he was an extremely patient
and kind person, always in a good mood and trying to help
everyone. Jessica loved and idolized her husband, his calm and
centered attitude was the reason she trusted him completely
since day one.

Juliano told his wife with his usual smile that he would go for
a drive with his moss-green 1981 Caravan, a car he had had
since he was a teenager. Jessica liked it when her husband went for his rides,
as he always came back calmer and in an even better
mood.

Juliano sat in his big leather driver's seat and took a deep
breath before turning the key in the ignition, He turned it on
and let the 8 cylinders heat up and pump some oil up. He loved the
sound and potency of that car, and he knew he was the man he was
thanks to it.
And he went, crossed the busy main avenue, and was glad to see
that the sun would go down earlier due to the winter.
He knew exactly what he was looking for, he needed a quiet
neighborhood with few cameras, but also somewhere where no one
would recognize his extremely flashy car.

After a little more than 40 minutes behind the wheel, Juliano
found the perfect spot. A small road very little traffic, in an
out town poor neighborhood, he parked the car under a dogwood
tree that was completely bare thanks to the winter.
Less than 5 minutes later he found what he wanted. A small man
in his late 40s was walking slowly along the side of the road,
carrying a ragged teletubies backpack that could only be more
than a decade old. The shabby clothes and tired walk showed that
this person was of a lower class and probably on his way home from work.

The roar of the 4.1 litter engine under the hood caught the
attention of the man who was now just over 10 meters away from
the car. Juliano turned on the high beams and accelerated as far
as he could towards the stranger.
The old man, seeing what was about to happen, tried to go back
to the sidewalk, but it was too late. The sound of the blinker
fracturing his pelvis could be heard even inside the vehicle.

The violent crash threw the little man against a light pole, but
after hitting his head on it, his lifeless body ended up
on one of the branches of the dogwood tree that was as twisted
as the worker's remains.

Juliano arrived home at 11:30 and turned off the car, open the
door and set a single foot outside.
The turned it off and stayed there for a few minutes listening
to the noises that the radiator made while cooling off.
Tomorrow he would have to fix the dent in the hood and check the
papers.
After a deep breath he went inside to his daughter's room,
kissed her tenderly in the forehead and sniffed her little head
again.
He went to the bedroom where he found Jessica almost falling
asleep; she greeted him with one eye open and said with a still
sleepy voice:
- I don't like it when you come back so late, we never know what
kind of maniacs are out there.


Thiago Gerard Pereira Meijerink