Panic at the Intersection

A white car speeds out of a gravel driveway, turning right down a small road. An upbeat pop song plays through the radio, overpowering the comfortable silence of the old car. The air conditioner was blowing softly in their faces, cooling down the hot summer heat that still clung to the inside of the vehicle. The passenger pleasantly looks out the window, watching as a small church passes and observes the large green field filled with a hundred cows. 

The driver hums along to the beat, swaying to and fro with the music. They slowly come upon a stop sign.

The tiny white car eases to a stop, and the driver lazily looks both ways before pressing gently on the gas, preparing to take another right. As her converse nudges the pedal, the car sputters to a stop and the engine turns quiet. Both the occupants of the car tense.

"You've got to be kidding me." The passenger, Poe, says. Her voice filled with resignment. Poe's eyes fall to the dashboard of the car to stare at it disappointingly. 

The driver, Ambrosia, just huffed. Her hand grumpily turned the key to off and put the car in neutral. She cranked the car and pulled the shifter to drive before tapping the gas again. 

The engine stubbornly turned off again.

Ambrosia tried, again and again, agitated the whole time. She cranked the key again, and speedily put the car into drive before slamming at the gas. Said car spluttered before blundering forward unsteadily and, after a few seconds, the car was driving normally. 

"Do you think it'll do that again?" Poe questioned briefly, looking quite unnerved by the thought. Ambrosia just fleetingly shrugged, hoping viciously that the car ran okay.

Ambrosia glanced at the clock and noted that they still had plenty of time to get to the hair appointment. They fell into silence, listening to the popular pop songs that came steadily from the radio, Ambrosia occasionally singing or humming along, and Poe watching as the rural lands passed bye.

They passed the outskirts of town, and Ambrosia worried that they were going to have an issue with the car again. 

It usually idles better the more you drive it, so maybe the fifteen minutes it took to get to town would prove to be enough. She tried to reassure herself. 

They kept getting closer and closer to the stoplight, and Ambrosia felt her chest get tighter and tighter. Poe slipped the radio off, also becoming anxious for the promise of a stop. 

They passed a hill and the intersection came into view, Ambrosia's hands were shaking something fierce. Poe was eyeing the red light with dismay.

Ambrosia eased the car to a stop in front of the red light noting that they were the first to stop. As soon as the car came to a halt, the engine immediately spluttered to a stop.

A distressed squawk came from Ambrosia as she scrambled to crank the old vehicle again. Poe was in the passenger seat, silently shaking, trying to stay calm.

The car came to life briefly before spluttering out again. They were both breathing heavily now, panic racing fervently through both of their minds, shaking their limbs vehemently. 

Ambrosia cranked the car again.

It cranked and before it could die again, Ambrosia poked at the peddle with her shoe forcing it to keep idling. 

They glanced up at the light, it's red glow seemed to viciously taunt them. 

Ambrosia couldn't put the car in drive because it would just splutter to silence again. She couldn't let the engine turn off since the light could change any minute now.

All they could do was wait. 

So they did.

Both of them had tears in their eyes, their bodies trembling with sobs, ribs quaking with every intake of breath. Ambrosia's hands shook on the steering wheel. A laugh bubbled up their quivering form, coming out as a strangled, desperate thing. 

So there they sat, waiting for the inevitable. Waiting for the light to turn. Waiting with their bodies tensed, muscles clenched, minds frantic. They talked some. They cursed this car, they pleaded with it, they hoped the light would just turn already. It was a special brand of fear, one that suffocated them, tore them apart from the inside out. 

And still, they waited.

Until the light turned green. 

Ambrosia didn't hesitate to throw the car into drive and slam on the gas.

It spluttered out. 

A wail echoed between them, they later wouldn't be able to name who the noise came from. The car was turned off and put in neutral, the vehicle cranked, and briskly put the car in drive and the gas hit. The small car zoomed forward. 

With her vision shaking and blurred, Ambrosia let out an angered shriek, her whole body curling in with the rapid-fire of emotions. Poe was brokenly laughing, it wheezing from her throat. 

Silence filled the small car as they merged into the turn lane, immediately pulling into a place of work. They went to the back of the scrawny parking lot and turned into a spot at the very end. 

"We should probably tell them it happened again," Poe noted miserably. Ambrosia nodded tiredly, worn out from the ever-present anxiety that came with a car that wouldn't run. "Maybe they'll do something this time?" 

They waited in the car for their mother to come out of her work, so they could go get a haircut, idly talking about how to go about telling their mother of the incident. 

A few minutes later, their mother was greeting them as they stepped out of the small, white car.

They informed her of the car breaking down at the intersection, and she nodded. Ambrosia offered her arm to her unmoved mother, showing off her still shaking limb.

"Oh, you poor things. Is your air conditioner working, your faces are all red!" She noted to mention it to her husband, who was a mechanic.

Of course, our faces are red because of the shoddy air conditioner, not the fact that we just had an anxiety attack in the middle of the intersection.

After all, it was just another hot summer day.