The White Getaway 2

Riding the Snake 

I couldn’92t keep my eyes open, much as I would like to.  To do so would only invite fear and anger despite the yellow morning rendered more brilliant by the fingers of a sun peeking through tree tops.  We were rushing through the slender roads of Misamis Oriental like bats out of hell.  Our vehicle devoured each curve like a sun advancing on the moon in a solar eclipse.

What is this compelling need to be fast?  I do not understand.

In the driver’92s haste to reach our destination, we have forgotten to take notice of the potholes and the etched hearts on the barks of ancient trees.  I looked at the speedometer; the car was pushing 140kph on a sparsely populated area– an accident waiting to happen.  I looked at the driver.  She was unconcerned; her long hair glistening in the sunlight, hands poised on the steering wheel blaring horns every ten seconds, her pedal to the metal.  If I were a racecar driver, I would have thought of her demeanor sexy.  But I am an ordinary mortal, and my heart has gotten lost some ten minutes ago, left behind a hairpin curve negotiated at 90kph.  With bile rushing up my throat, I held on for dear life, shutting my eyes with all the eyelid muscle I can muster.

In one terrific racing movie (Initial D), the father of the lead character said something to the effect that a person is getting faster when he starts feeling that those around him are going at a much slower pace, despite their actual speed.  I took a glance at the significant other again and realized that she is in her element, in her ’93zone’94 so to speak.  It wasn’92t about the haste or the need to be fast, this is just how she perceives a regular driving speed should be.  In a distance that’92s usually reached in an hour and a half, we arrived in Balingoan from CDO 40 minutes ahead of schedule and 5 minutes before an earlier ferry was about to depart.

The SO parked the car and got out casually as if nothing happened, while I waited near the pier, steadying myself on a pole, nauseated, reeling from the furious snake ride I’92d just been in.