Amanda was hurrying home from work when it started to rain.
At first, the rain was just an inconvenience, but as the sprinkle turned into a downpour, she became worried. She didn’t like to drive alone at night, and the increasingly heavy rain made it much harder to see the edges of the road as it got darker. The windshield wipers cleared the sheets of water from the windshield only briefly, and the headlights lit up the falling rain far more than the road. She could barely see beyond the hood of the car. She became frightened and slowed down, but suddenly there was a terrific jolt as the car hit something in the road. Amanda stomped on the brakes and the car veered to the right, coming to a sliding stop with two wheels up on the curb.
Amanda sat still and gripped the steering wheel tightly, trying to steady her breathing and settle her nerves. The rain was making a loud drumming sound on the roof, while the windshield washers beat a quick swoop-swoop across the windshield.
The engine had stopped, but the car’s lights were still on. Amanda tried to restart the car. RRRR, RRRR, rrr. Nothing. She tried again. On the third try, it started. She shakily put the car into reverse and tried to back up. She unconsciously looked over her shoulder, but the rain was so heavy that she couldn’t see anything behind her. She wondered what she hit. A rock, or a fallen tree branch, she thought.
As she tried to back up, the steering wheel tried to pull itself out of her hands, and the car made a slow flop-flop-flop sound. She stopped.
Maybe there’s something caught under the car, she thought.
She tried to back up again, but the car resisted with the same twist of the wheel and a lurch before refusing to move.
Amanda sat there. The rain, if anything, had gotten stronger.
She searched in her purse for her cell phone and found it. She tried to turn it on, but the battery was dead.
“Damn!” she yelled. “I shouldn’t have talked to that customer so long.” She threw the phone on the floor, and then sat back and tried to calm down.
Amanda sat in the car and thought for a few minutes. The rain was coming in gusts now, rocking the car, and showed no signs of letting up.
“I’ve got to do something. I need to get home.”
She opened the car door and was hit by a burst of icy rain pellets. She squinted her eyes and pushed the door open and stepped out. Instantly, her clothes became soaked with the cold rain, but she was out of the car and was looking at the front tire, which was clearly flat. She knelt down and looked under the car. Nothing.
“At least I didn’t hit someone and drag the body under the car”, she thought.
She was grateful that her father had insisted that she know how to change a tire. She went around to the back of the car, opened the hatch, pulled aside the rug, unscrewed the bracket holding the tire, and as she was wrestling the tire out of the well to get reach the jack, she noticed that her bare legs were getting numb from the cold, and her shoes were filling with cold water.
She got the jack out of the car, then went around and placed it under the frame where her father, long ago, had pointed out the jacking point. Her fingers were starting to freeze from holding the cold metal. The grit from the road bit painfully into her knees and palms. As she fit the wrench into the jack and started to crank the jack open, the rain ran through her hair and down her face. She couldn’t tell if she was crying or not. Her fingers were starting to burn. She stopped and rung them together, but it didn’t help. She was starting to shake.
She tried again, and got the jack to raise the car a bit. She then picked up the tire iron, put it on the wheel nut and tried to turn it. The wheel nut wouldn’t budge. She pushed with all her might and in a rush the wrench came off the wheel nut, she slipped and fell and her knuckles jammed into the pavement. She screamed in pain and frustration.
Then she stood up, and pushed her hands inside her jacket.
The picture ends here, but the story does not.
Amanda got back into the car, started it up again, and turned on the heater full blast. She had half a tank of gas, and the car could idle for half a day on that. She lowered the windows a quarter inch to let in fresh air, and then turned on the overhead light to look at her hands. She could barely feel them, but that was good, because they were badly scraped and bleeding. Blood was soaking into her white shirt cuffs.
She got the clean paper towels that she always carried in the car out of the glove box and wrapped several of them around her hands, then set her bundled hands in front of the heater vents. Soon, her hands started to really hurt.
She locked the car doors and tried to sleep. Her head was throbbing and she felt sick. The rain was still pounding on the outside of her car, but it seemed to be letting up somewhat.
She awoke to someone pounding on her window. It was a policeman, making his usual rounds. The rain had stopped. Her hands were encased in a stiff bandage of towels and dried blood, but she got the car’s window open and the policeman asked if she was OK?
Amanda felt incredible relief. This could have turned out so differently, she thought.
“Yes, I’m fine. But my phone is dead and I have a flat tire.”
“Let me call the dispatcher and we can get a tow truck out here”, he said. Amanda told him she thought that was a wonderful idea.
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Originally Posted by Ritella
I want to make this my new tattoo. It's a faun, in greek mythology fauns were spirits of a place/forest and guardians of humans passing by. The roots coming out of her body are not only a symbol of connection to nature but also a connection to ancestors, her origins. Even though fauns are often described as wandering spirits it's important to never forget your true self even when you wander through new lands. The faun is placed in a labyrinth which is most likely an association made based on the movie which I love "Faun's labyrinth", the faun is a guardian of this place as she wear the key from it on her neck. The labyrinth can represent life, place or human nature which this creature owns. Her eyes are cowered but even when blind she stands firm with her roots. It basically says never get lost in your own circle of life, never forget who you really are and even when blind, always find your way.
I'd like to own a van one day and go on a road trip with my friends and my partner to discover new places, culutures, mett new people and just have a lot fun and party until we pass out. Maybe I even like the idea of the movie "Into The Wild", the idea of getting away from society and its rules and living for one's own values, seeking the ultimate freedom and the truth of the self.
Music and singing are my biggest passions, I can't imagine going a single day without them and when everything seems hopeless music always wakes up my deepest feelings and desires.
