The Date - Part 4: Traffic.

The world seemed to be on pause as I steadily guided the the chassis through a long left corner onto the Seremban highway. It seemed as though all the other vehicles were chess pieces waiting to be moved on a long chequered board. With a feather light touch of my foot, I commanded the heavy two liter turbocharged engine to forge ahead. The speedometer steadily touched the 80km/h mark and as quickly as it had gotten there, it was forced to fall back like a soldier forced to retreat. We had reached the first toll and she instinctively reached into her pouch and scrambled to hand me a Rm5 note. Soon we were on a dark highway, alone as if we had been abandoned by civilization and cast into the realms of what was in stored for us ahead. But I didn't mind. As far as I was concerned, I had readily accepted the task and secretly wished that the journey would last a lifetime. I direct my attention from the road to her angelic face. Her forlorn expression looking out the window told me she was in deep thought; perhaps mesmerized by the occasional passing headlights. For that few seconds, my heart smiled, satisfied and proud that it had managed to stole yet another vision of her. I forced myself to peel my sights off of her before I successfully drove both of us off the road and into certain death. As the music played on, so did our journey. It was getting late and the digital clock on the dash brightly reminded me as its digits turned 11:23. As she asked me for the fifth time where we were going, an overhead signboard flew by, one of it's scriptings made out P.Dickson in fluorescent white. I had an intuition she'd already know where we were heading. I just smiled and replied as though I had already answered her for the 1000th time "Long Kai lor".

Standing at the side of the road, I stood closely beside her as we tried to find a chance to cross to the opposite. I had parked the car on the side of the road just right in front of a Malay foodstall. The folks owning the store didn't seem to mind as they were closing up, happily content with the profits of the day. Just opposite where we were, the sounds of water clashing on soft sand can be heard. That was certainly our rendezvous point. For a small town on a weekday midnight, I was amazed that there was still traffic. The people must have known about my plans for night and decided to gang up on a conspiracy to banish me to a life of celibacy. No, I shall not retreat for what I am fighting for is worth three my lifetimes. I retaliated. Firmly putting my hand on her waist, I forced her to make her first step onto the middle of the road. We ran, with her under my grip, we ran as though we were Romeo and Juliet, fleeing from the conflicts, turmoil and feudalism of our families. And just as we were gonna make it, one of them Proton Sagas suddenly decided to run us over and accelerated like a mad cow in heat. His mad headlight flashes landed on our helpless faces and my perfect date for the night seemed destined to end up being a tragic story on the front headlines of New Straits Times. But tonight, I'm blessed. Tonight, I have an angel by my side. Tonight, I was escorting my dreams. My arms surrounded the waist of my most cherished. How can I...wait...rephrase...I will NEVER let the fingers of harm leave a fingerprint on her, let alone become a roadkill at the side of the road. With a determination like an Optimus Prime, I squeezed a squeal out of her and barely managed to dodge its sinister fenders. We had managed to reach the other side in one piece. The engine roar of our would be hit-and-run murderer suggested that the bastard never did intended on touching his brakes. Bastard! We sighed in relieve and I held my head up high, proud that I have beaten the evil plans of the town folks.