Time stood still, nightmare frozen still Everything seemed to be speeding around her, but in a slow, frame-by-frame way. The day had been frenetic, edging seconds out of minutes, so that a sandwich of opportunity appeared. It wa.s all in the mind, she knew. If you thought you had not time, well, you hadn't. Still the list had been long, the engagements ran into one another, like a merrry-go-round, her diary had been full, one word crossed out, another smudged over, and she hadn't really known where she'd been. Police cars raced past, drivers behind hooting, encouraging her to run down the crossing pedestrians, the end of their shopping day, no hurry for them, just everyone else speeding around her. Still a long drive, through this unknown city, her tomtom often unreliable.. why did he have to be silent when she was going the right way?
How could she cope with the traffic, the strange roads, the lack of signposts... well, just drive, just drive, and hopefully the nightmare would end and she'd see a sign to somewhere she recognised. She didn't even know which places were in the right direction. Nightmare films were like this, single women in cars in the dark.
She shook herself. It was like a zoo, this city, lurching animals, that man prowling like a caged tiger, would he pounce at any moment? A woman, there, another cat, oh yes and one in a fur coat, they were animals out her, and she was prey, ready to be eaten alive. She swallowed, dry mouth and shaking fingers, white-knuckles clutching the steering wheel. A huge elephant truck rolled in front of her, the tiny driver like an alien.. a zoo or a jungle, wherever, she was prey.
And then she remembered, the cage. When she was small, and she'd looked into the cage. Nothing there she thought, nothing moving. But her mother had pointed up, and there was a small brown furry animal. A sloth, she said. And she thought her mother was lisping, like she did, but it was right, a sloth, and it was very lazy, her mum said.
She sighed, a huge sigh of relief, at the memory, and the sloth slid inside her, like magic, and she sat still, in her car, the stillest she had been all day, a kind of calm ice-cream feeling, spreading through her. They could be predators out there, the tigers, the lions, the cackling hyenas, the laughter. She would be a sloth.
She settled back in her seat, turned the radio on, and took her time, negotiating her way to familiar roads. Sitting sloth-like, still in her seat, silent and smiling.
Copyright © 2008 Rob Richardson. All Rights Reserved.