Short Stories: The Crash

This writing is based on a dream I had last night; I liked the dream so much that I felt as though it deserved a story similar to it. I found converting this dream into writing to be quite difficult: This piece started out great but it became harder the more I wrote and I don't think it's brilliant; that being said, please do let me know what your opinions are. Additional notes are included at the bottom.

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It was the early evening. Four friends — Ajith, Aly, Attin and Jenna — were travelling on motorway, heading back home after spending a long day out celebrating Ajith and Jenna's wedding anniversary. They had chosen a unique way of enjoying the occasion: Helping the happy couple pick out a new car to buy; the day had been a success and they were now driving in a beautiful and pristine hybrid vehicle.

"Ah, nice and smooth," remarked Ajith, who was the driver. "This is, without a doubt, the best car I've driven to date."

"Well, considering the only other car you've driven had pedals, that's not saying much!" joked Aly.

"Ha ha!"

Ajith's laugh was short; despite his initiation of the discussion, Ajith preferred his passengers to be quiet, as the silence helped him concentrate on the road. Until his offhand comment, nobody had said anything since he pulled onto the mostly-empty motorway; still, the occasional laugh while driving helped him relax.

"Thank you, Aly, Attin, for spending the day with us and advising us on a good car," said Jenna sometime later, while watching a truck slowly pass them. "Ajith and I really appreciate it."

"Hey, you're welcome," Attin replied, watching the truck that had passed them suddenly pull into their lane. "I'm glad we could help while enjoying your day."

"It was our pleasure," said Aly, 

"I hope we can do something like this again," said Ajith, now breaking his own "quiet" rule while keeping his eyes on the truck ahead, which was decelerating. "I had a thoroughly great..."

The truck came to an abrupt stop; Ajith slammed on the brakes but his and Jenna's new car hit the back of the truck, albeit at a slower speed than if Ajith hadn't been paying any attention. There was some moderate crumpling on both vehicles but neither was totalled; the other driver separated them when he pulled his truck forward slightly.

"Is everyone all right?" Ajith asked calmly.

The other three answered in agreement, although they were all clearly shaken. Ajith was about to get out of the car to walk over to the truck when the other driver had already come to him.

"H-hello," the other driver said nervously. He was menacing in appearance: he was tall and muscular, with various skulls and gory images tattooed all over his arms. His quavering voice, however, did not match his frightening impression.

"Is...is anyone hurt?" he asked. "This is all my fault; I was distracted."

"No one's hurt," Ajith assured as he got out of the car.

"My fault...all my fault, I'm sorry..."

"No one's hurt," Ajith repeated. "Everyone is okay, and by the looks of things..." He glanced at the damaged on both vehicles. "...Our cars are okay; we should be able to get off the motorway without needing to be towed. Let's swap insurance details and move on." The traffic was avoiding the accident but Ajith had no desire to be on the motorway for long; however, he had to spend ten minutes consoling the other driver before they both traded notes and returned to their respective vehicles.

"What happened?" Jenna asked when Ajith returned to the car.

"I calmed him down, we traded details," Ajith replied. "He erred, he owned up, he'll say the accident was his fault. Fortunately, we have the same insurance provider and use the same dealership. This isn't how I expected this anniversary to end, nor did I expect the car to get damaged so soon, but that's life. Now, let's get off this motorway before we hold up any more traffic."

With that, Ajith restarted the car and turned off the motorway at the next exit. He resolved to book an appointment for repairs immediately the next morning. Despite what had happened, Ajith's mood had not been dampened one iota: He had enjoyed the day, as he attempted to say just prior to the crash. Nothing could spoil celebrating his and his wife's anniversary, with two fine friends joining in. Not even a car crash.

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In the dream, the other driver was extremely hostile rather than reasonable and apologetic; in addition, I barely saw his appearance, so his description here is not a part of my dream. Also in the dream, the "Ajith" character and the other driver did swap insurance details and I woke up soon after. "Ajith" was a reasonable person in the dream and I wanted to keep his personality consistent. I'm not happy with how Ajith's passengers were almost forgotten about, though; I thought about removing them and focusing on Ajith only but I felt that doing so would weaken the plot enormously.

Inventing an ending was hard; the dream itself ended abruptly and the ending here is somewhat anti-climactic. I doubt that many traffic accidents are resolved in such a peaceful manner — especially on a motorway — but this was the only ending that I felt satisfied with. Still, this is a piece of creative writing and by analysing what I've written I know I can improve for next time!

No people in the dream were hurt.