Zoom Skid Crash Bang
Daily Prompt: A to Z – Create a short story, piece of memoir, or epic poem that is 26 sentences long, in which the first sentence begins with “A” and each sentence thereafter begins with the next letter of the alphabet.
All I remembered from the accident was a screeching of tyres, a spinning sensation and a loud bang. Brakes were applied of course – but far too late.
Cars are my life. Driven recklessly they can obviously be dangerous, but I do that for a living. Expert on the track, I drive rally cars. Formula 1 it’s not, but it’s still a thrill, a real spectator sport and I’m good. Good enough to find myself on the podium more often than not.
Here’s the thing though. I’m not so good that I never make mistakes, and today’s mistake was a big one. Just because I’ve finally caught the race leader doesn’t mean I should try to overtake on a tight corner at such a reckless speed.
Knocking on Death’s door has always pretty much been my thing – I’m a danger junkie – but this was taking it way too far.
Living dangerously is one thing, living stupidly is quite another.
My driving skills are quite prodigious, but not enough to save me from an uncontrolled skid – that’s why they call it “uncontrolled”.
No way to stop – the car clipped the verge, glanced off a tree and flipped. Over and over it rolled, finally coming to rest on its roof, the front smashed inwards against my legs. Pain lanced through me – though I don’t remember much about the crash, I remember that much. Quiet fell then, the only sound a hissing as steam leaked from the cracked radiator. Random thoughts flitted through my pain-racked mind – my home, my childhood, my first love until finally, I blacked out.
Suddenly the world intruded and I found myself lying in a bed surrounded by beeping machines – a hospital bed, then. Try as I might I couldn’t move my legs, but they hurt like hell – that had to be a good sign, right?
Unbelievably I had suffered no permanent damage. Very lucky, they all said – it could have been so much worse. Way worse. X-rays were taken and confirmed the diagnosis. Yes, both my legs were broken, but they’d heal and no other damage to report – I’d be back on the race track next season.
Zoom, skid, crash, bang.
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Well done on this prompt, drali!
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Thanks! It was quite a tricky one 🙂
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It was a really tricky prompt, that’s why I left it to the clever ones such as yourself 🙂
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🙂
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Loved the post and the writing style. So what would be your learning from the incident?
Shakti
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Glad you liked the post!
My learning from the incident (as the fictional driver) would probably be something about not being so overconfident.
My own personal learning would be not to try to write another short story using 26 sentences starting a-z 🙂
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Amazing job on the prompt!
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Thanks! I joined the ranks of “x-ray” for the “x”. I also read multiple “Xaviers”!
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Or you could have learned you needed that Formula 1 auto and you would have missed the tree. Maybe.
Enjoyed your 26 sentences.
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That’s true, with all the manoeuvrability. Or alternatively my driver chap would have hit it even harder and done more damage!
Glad you enjoyed it!
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This is amazing!! I read the post, thought, “Hmm, I should try to do this, but it seems really hard.” I read yours, and I was blown away!
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Thank you so much!
The tricky bit was the “X” – if you read the other submissions you will find several “x-rays” like mine, and also a huge number of protagonists called “Xavier” 🙂
Plus I cheated a bit with the “z” but managed to make it work!
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It could have been worse… you could have thrown a xylophone into your racing story. 😉
I liked the Z… it fit nicely!
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Funny you mention that, but xylophone was the other “x” I thought of – it could easily have been a story about a musician!
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