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.

Candy coincidence

I had an interesting coincidence take place. A couple of nights ago, I dreamt about my brother taking a bus ride to one of the neighbouring towns; the sole concern of the "dream me" was that my brother buy me some chocolate when he was out (in real-life he has occasionally brought chocolates home after he's been out for an extended period). Unfortunately, I woke up before I could learn whether or not I received any chocolate.

This past evening, my brother took a walk and stopped off at one of our local stores. Prior to him leaving, I had given him some coins and asked if he could pick up a couple of candy bars for me (he'd said he would be going to the store). It was the first time in months that this particular situation had arisen.

I found it a coincidence to be dreaming about me wanting my brother to buy me some chocolate, and a couple of days later he announces he's going to a store, causing me to ask if he could pick something up for me! My decision to ask was not prompted by the dream, and I didn't think about the dream — or the coincidence —  until long after I had eaten the chocolate.

Music influencing a dream

Have you ever experienced music influence a dream? I'm not referring to listening to a song prior to sleeping and it shapes what you dream about — I mean sleeping while a song is playing and the real-time music manifests itself within a dream. Your mind's "characters" and the "you" inside an affected dream will be aware of the music and will often respond to it.

I have two memorable experiences of this. The first time was over four years ago: I was dreaming about riding in a pickup truck with Dad, travelling down a lengthy onramp onto a freeway. I turned on our vehicle's radio before we reached the freeway and Lady Gaga's "Just Dance" started playing inside the dream. In reality, my actual radio had activated and was playing the song; my brain had reacted to the song by having a character — me, in this case — perform an action so that the song would become a part of the dream.

The second time was this morning. The dream involved me attending a fancy event with friends and family; at one point, I sat down with a handful of friends and family at a coffee table surrounded by couches. A large radio — unlikely to ever be present at the type of event my dream was portraying — started to play "Broken Strings" by James Morrison featuring Nelly Furtado, and both I and at least one of the other characters reacted to it. Both the radio and the song were irrelevant to the rest of the dream — the song playing on a nearby outside source brought it into my thoughts.

I have had this happen several times between these two dreams, but these two are the most memorable: the first dream is my original experience into outside music altering dreams and the second is in my recent memory. I like it whenever it occurs because the outcome is always an enhanced dream, although I have to be in a light sleep for it to happen, however, as my dreams don't appear to be affected by music if I'm deeply sleeping.

I attempted to learn what the exact term for this is, but I was unable to find it. Is this something that you have experienced? I know members of family who have and I am interested to learn if it has happened to others.

Half dollar dreaming

This is going to sound strange, but there is a type of coin I have always been fascinated with: it is the United States half dollar coin. These coins can be identified from their having John F. Kennedy on the obverse side and the Seal of the President of the United States on the reverse; and from being larger than quarters. I was introduced to them when Dad once showed me a half dollar coin that belongs to him. The reason this becomes strange is because I have actually dreamt about owning or finding half dollar coins on several occasions.

A recurring type of dream of mine are the ones where I find a half dollar coin or two (or sometimes even a huge stash of them), and I experience a significant amount of happiness within that dream: in the context of the dream, I have achieved a major goal and am happy for it. Sometimes finding the coins is the purpose of the dream, other times it is merely a side story, but there are occasions where it has nothing to do with the rest of the dream whatsoever. The only downside to these dreams is that no matter how elated I feel at finally owning a half dollar coin, I soon wake up and think "that was just a dream!".

In reality, the coins are difficult to attain, hence why I do not own any for the time being: while they are still in production, they are more for collectors and are rarely used in circulation itself. I am not actually even sure how Dad was able to collect his half dollar coin: I do not know if he found it or managed to come across the occasional one found in circulation. Either way, it is an achievement in itself!

I do own a substantial number of American coins, and I have had most of them in my collection long before we left the United States. This collection includes pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters (it also includes an old American penny, plus a few quarters from the 50 State Quarters program); I still hope to have a United States half dollar coin in there someday, but for now I will keep on dreaming!

Here is an image of a few designs of the half dollars. I am most familiar with the second type shown in the picture, and it is the design I have written about:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/50cent_designs.jpg