Green Eyes, Red Car

We were sitting in traffic on I-95. I was heading up to Maine to meet friends at a cabin we had rented for the weekend. She was in the lane to the left of mine, the fast lane. I didn’t notice her at first, just her small red Volkswagen Jetta. It was a convertible, and she had the top down even though it was a cloudy, even misty, summer day.

I was driving a black SUV with the windows down and my arm stretched out the window holding a cigarette. She caught me staring at the Hawaiian leis and Covid mask hanging from her rear-view mirror. I was wearing sunglasses, but when I saw her face, her green eyes pierced through the lenses and I almost went blind. She had dark brown hair that was cut straight along the back, just below her ears. Her face was soft and beautiful, and she was wearing a bullring in her nose. I looked for as long as I could without seeming too eager. However, a quote came to mind:

“You see, the first thing we love is a scene. For love at first sight requires the very sign of its suddenness…”

I dwelled upon this quote with my stomach in knots and my heart pounding too fast for a man to bear. “I must be in love with this girl.” I thought to myself. I had music playing too loud to hear any logical thought. I immediately played a love song I had just discovered by a Mexican girl. It was the right song for the right moment.

I fixed my hair a bit when she pulled up a bit. When my lane began moving, my car was once again parallel to hers. She was trying to change into sandals while keeping her free foot on the brake pedal. I had never seen a more beautiful scene.

“You see, the first thing we love is a scene…”

I couldn’t lose her. Her green eyes would haunt me forever.

In the distance, I saw traffic starting to speed up, and her lane began to move faster. Her car began to move at a steady pace, and soon my lane began to move. I was eager. I had to make a scene, a love scene.

As she drove far ahead, I drove faster, and faster. I switched into her lane and was close behind her. As I thought of the quote and the love song playing I decided there was only one thing I could do:

I drove, at full speed directly into the back of her little red Volkswagen. The crash caused my airbag to open and it broke one of my ribs. Her car, on the other hand, spun into both lanes and the damage was devastating. When her car spun, a car in the right lane hit the front end of hers and the hood was smashed to pieces.

I managed to get out of my car and ran up to the totalled red convertible. Her face had hit the steering wheel. She had bruises around her green eyes, and her bullring was ripped from her nose. I asked if she was okay, and she began screaming at me with tears and blood flowing down her pretty face. The driver from the other car got out and started to yell and threatened me with a tire wrench. The traffic behind us was now worse than before.

Ignoring the chaos, screaming, and the scene of the accident, I managed to get the courage to say, “You’ve got the most beautiful green eyes I’ve ever seen.”