Road Trip

Road Trip

By Abigail Grace


FLORIDA: EAST COAST ISLAND AEROCENTER

“Who-o-o-a! Sweetness, baby!” whooped 16-year-old Torbin Ray’mindo, the crazed, bleached blond haired teen who sat behind the wheel of a sleek, black flecked X-Drive solar-electric. (The car to own if you lived in the same era, only they started around 200,000 Narcs – that’s equivalent to today’s 1,000,000 dollars.)

Jaytwi (jay–twee) Rutlan, seated on the passenger side, was 22, mature, even-tempered, and competent.

“Cut it out, Torb!” he shouted at the top of his lungs. “You’re gonna blow this thing to bits, you idiot! Ya wanna die or somethin’?!”

Well . . . a death ride aboard the world’s fastest 4-wheel vehicle has been known to occasionally bring out the worst in people.

“Ah, come on, Jay,” Torbin retorted, narrowly missing an oncoming pick-up truck as he swerved around a corner, dangerously teetering on two wheels as he did so. “It’s not like I’d actually do something stupid that would get us killed. Besides,” he continued before Jaytwi could spit out his quick counter, “it’s not like I haven’t done this before. Virtual reality games have so totally prepared me for the road!”

Jaytwi groaned and closed his eyes as Torbin gassed it around another turn and out over a suspension bridge. “Ever heard of speed limits?” he demanded loudly, hardly daring to peek as he felt Torbin gun it.

“Nope.” Torbin grinned. “At least not in Need for Speed New Millennium.”

“This is nuts,” Jaywti muttered under his breath as the car sped off the bridge and into a construction zone.

“What’s that?” Torbin hollered, unable to hear anything because, no surprise, he had all four windows cranked down.

“I said you’re an idiot!” Jaytwi shouted back. “What in tarnation are you doing?!?” he cried,
panic filling his voice as Torbin shot right through the construction zone cones.

“Cruisin’ for some big air!” Torbin announced, steering straight toward a rectangle of sheet steel that had been propped up from the ground on one end by some other spare metal to make the world’s most illegal road ramp.

“Oh, no you don’t!”

Torbin obviously chose not to heed Jaytwi’s words of wisdom and gunned the car forward toward the ramp.

“I’m gonna die,” Jaytwi muttered, breathing a quick prayer as he slammed his eyes shut tightly. The next thing he knew, the hum of tires over ground momentarily ceased.

Airborne!

VOOSH!

The car was back on the ground and racing on.

Against his will, Jaytwi pried his eyes opened to catch a glimpse of the road ahead and let out a relieved sigh. They were on legal ground again. For how long, he hadn’t the slightest.

Torbin just laughed as he pressed the pedal toward the floor. “Don’t sweat it, man,” he said, taking his eyes from the road for a half second to grin over at Jaytwi. “It’s not like I’d ever do this in – ”

“Torbin!” Jaytwi shouted suddenly, cutting him off. His eyes were glued straight ahead, his muscles paralyzed in horror. “Look out for that – ”

K-BAM!

“Palm tree,” Jaytwi finished in silence as the world around him faded out into sweet, sweet blackness.

_ __

STIMULATION OVER

The bright red letters flashed across the large, all-surround stimulation screen before Jaytwi and Torbin, illuminating the darkness that had momentarily set in around them.

COMPLETION STATUS: FAILURE

The red letters flashed again, blinking mockingly down at the two as light began to flicker from the overhead fluorescents.

“Ah, rats,” Torbin laughed, turning to grin at Jaytwi who sat slouched down in his seat. “This sure doesn’t help my grade point average any.”

“It certainly does nothing to improve my mental and emotional stability,” Jaytwi responded with a grimace, prying his hands loose from their vice-like grasp of the armrests to reach for the door latch. “I’ve gotta get out of here before my gut give its opinion of your stimo driving.”

With that, Jaytwi pounded his door’s touch pad and the passenger side of the stimulation car swung up on its rollers and over the roof. Jaytwi didn’t wait for it to stop, and he didn’t stop for Torbin.

“Ah, come on, Jay,” Torbin tried, opening his door and stepping out after Jaytwi. “It was fun. It’s not like I’d ever actually do that in real life or any – thing . . .” he finished to himself as Jaytwi split from the stimulation room and left him standing alone. “Oh, well,” Torbin muttered with a shrug. “The weak stomach’s his loss.”

_ __

“For your sake, I am eternally grateful that the legal driving age of 18 is now a universal law,” Jaytwi told Torbin some twenty minutes later. He sat behind a painted metal desk. Torbin sat in front of him in a leather office chair with a lopsided grin on his face.

Jaytwi stared silently at him for a minute, then rubbed his temples rhythmically with his fingers. “Your mom is going to kill me,” he muttered half to himself.

“What’s that?” Torbin asked. “I thought you told her that spending the afternoon here with you would be good for me.”

“Evidently, I was wrong,” Jaytwi replied with a sigh. “Look, that stimulator was designed for the purposes of training and learning real-life skills before drivers get into sticky situations on the road. It’s not a toy, and it’s not a virtual reality game. When I agreed to let you use it, I thought you were mature enough to take it seriously. Obviously, you weren’t.” Jaytwi paused to frown across at Torbin. “Has one word of what I just said penetrated that thick skull of yours?” he wondered.

“Yep,” Torbin replied, his grin wide. “You said something about a game?”

“Errr!” Jaytwi growled in frustration. “Forget it. Just forget everything. Go home and let me do my job, okay? You rode your tri-skoot here, and now you can ride it right on home again.”

“Jay?” Torbin inquired, his grin dimming. “You OK?”

“No, I am not OK!” Jaytwi nearly shouted. “Look,” he said, taking a deep breath to calm himself. “I didn’t invite you here as a death wish. I thought I could help you mature a little. Come on, Torbin, doesn’t acting your shoe size instead of your age get old? Let me tell you something that might not have occurred to you. It gets old for everyone else around you real fast. Don’t you want to finish school? Don’t you want to get a job, start a family, and have a decent life?”

Torbin nodded slowly, his grin all but diminished now.

“Then maybe you should start shaping up. Life isn’t a game, Torbin. When are you going to get that through your head? This world is a scary, dangerous, and uncontrolled place. Not everything that’s thrown your way will be inside a stimulated machine. How are you going to handle that when it happens?”

“Look, I just wanted to have some fun,” Torbin defended.

“And fun is fine and good – when it’s appropriate. In case you haven’t notice, even fun gets old when it’s all you ever do.” Jaytwi took another deep breath. “You’ve got to make some choices, Torb. Either you keep on chugging away at your games, or you can grow up and start making for yourself a life that won’t crumble beneath your feet when the tough times come. What’s it gonna be?”

“I . . . I want to have something like that,” Torbin finally admitted, looking away from Jaytwi and out the window.

This time when he spoke, Jaytwi’s words came slower and gentler. “You’ve got a lot to learn if you want to shape up, but I’m here to help you, okay? If you ever need anything, just ask. I’m not saying that I’ll hand you anything on a silver platter, but I’ll help you work for whatever you need. Sound like a fair deal?”

“Totally,” Torbin agreed, his grin springing back.

“We can start right now – by asking for God’s help,” Jaytwi said. “Because without that, we’d be doomed to failure one hundred percent of the time.”

At that, Torbin eyes grew wide. “Are you serious, man?” he asked in amazement. “Like, right here, right now?”

“I am totally serious,” Jaytwi replied, his expression clear that he was exactly that. “Just because big men with guns say something’s “illegal” doesn’t always make it wrong or undesirable. Remember that,” he said and bowed his head.