The highway air hitting my face made me want to go faster, but I couldn’t. I could barely hear the radio over this sense of freedom. The last time I noticed it was on, it was the late-night news. I checked again whether I was over the speed limit or not.

The stuffiness of the car was driving me nuts. News about some highway accident made it worse. And it was on this exact same road as well!

All these were thoughts I had to myself; until I saw a flashlight begin flickering in the distance. I knew I’d drive past it, so I kept my curiosity under control. It couldn’t have been 5 minutes from the moment I reached that spot, to the moment I realized that I’d let them into the car and said all those things out loud.

There was an injured young boy sitting up against a tree, and apparently, his mother was flickering the light to get someone to help. How and why he was injured like that wasn’t something I could deduce like Sherlock. So, I decided to be Watson instead.

- Is he okay?

- I’m praying that we reach the city in time… It's great that I was heading to the hospital as well.

- Of course!

- So many cars just zoomed by without batting an eye!

- Don’t worry. We’ll make it.

The boy jolted awake. He was holding the lower right of his stomach. I knew a thing or two of anecdotal medical knowledge, so I proceeded to let it show.

- He might have appendicitis.

- Apen...di?

- It’s when an organ in the stomach burs-… begins to hurt a lot. It requires medical attention, quick!

- How long will it take…

- Another hour, if there isn’t any traffic.

I tried to release some of her tension by playing the radio again. But it was news once more and it was the morbid highway accident again! I instantly switched it off.

The boy slowly eased up a bit and I held hope that we’d make it to the hospital. I let the conversation with the woman roam around till I found out the boy wanted to be a writer and the mother was a teacher.

Some things she brought up were so interesting, I stopped to listen to her after a while. She spoke about how we only learnt our distinct hand-writings, motions of running, and ways to phrase things by first observing and copying someone. And the same applied to learning anything new as well. I somehow felt enlightened.

Just before we reached the suburbs, I saw the boy move and pulled up. He suddenly started to move quite a bit, so I got freaked out. Too freaked out that I pulled up in a well-lit area. I caught a mere glimpse of the woman’s hand coming forward to where I had kept my phone and wallet. And just a glance of the boy’s shaking hand reaching into his shirt before both of them jumped out of the car.

I felt faint.

Did I clean up the front? I went to check. Yes, I had cleaned it up after I hit that person hours ago. But it was all for nothing. Now the blood from my slashed throat had stained the front of the car.