I don’t drive. Something about getting behind the wheel and controlling a giant four wheeled machine that has the capability to destroy property and end human lives just scares the crap out of me. I’m definitely much older now than the legal age to own a license, but I still can’t get over my fear of driving no matter how old I am.

Lucky for me, my girlfriend drives, and even luckier, we have now moved into an apartment together. Of course I still take the bus, or walk or bike when the weather allows it, but I do rely on her driving skills to get me around sometimes. I can easily take the bus to work or places I go often enough to be familiar with the bus routes, but I do use her when I need to.

It’s April, and there’s still snow everywhere, and the temperatures are dropping below freezing, and feel even worse when there’s a windchill. I guess that’s what I get for living in Canada. Recently I had an appointment downtown. I can easily take the bus there and back, but it was snowing a wet, heavy snow, and my girlfriend felt bad that I would have to walk to the bus stop and then stand there until the bus came. She was free so she offered to drive me there, kill some time downtown, then drive me back to our apartment.

Road conditions were bad. The roads were bumpy and slippery, and there was this looming grey colour surrounding us. Visibility was poor. I was glad I wasn’t behind the wheel. When we finally got downtown, she dropped me off in front of the building and then took off to do her own things.

My appointment was finished around 4:30pm so it shouldn’t have been dark yet, but it was. My girlfriend picked me up and we began heading home. The heavy snow fell in clumps on the windshield and she cursed about not being able to see the road. It made me anxious just to try to watch her navigate through the horrid weather. I reminded myself that I wasn’t the driver and tried to relax.

We decided to take a different way home. It just seemed very dark so we tried to stay on roads that were brightly lit. The roads weren’t busy. No one wanted to be out in this weather. The drive wasn’t much longer and I was excited to get back into my cozy and safe apartment, but before we could reach our turn, another car zipped in front of us and cut us off. My girlfriend stepped on the brake and we were thrown forward. The weird thing is, the other car had stopped too. It had cut us off and then suddenly stopped when it was in front of us. We were stuck behind it. Honking the horn at them did nothing, so my girlfriend threw the car in reverse so she could get enough space to go around it. The driver of the car also went in reverse and then parked sideways across the road completely blocking us. We hadn’t really been able to get a clear view of the car through the darkness and heavy snow, but now we could see that the car was pretty damaged.

I don’t know enough about cars to tell you what kind of car it was. It was just your standard four person car, pretty similar to ours. The car had holes in the windows and large dents on the body. One of the tires was flat. The paint was rusting. It was not in good shape. We couldn’t go forward to get home unless we went completely off the road. We actually did debate using the sidewalk to get around them, but then the driver got out of the car from the drivers side.

It was clearly a person. He just opened the door and walked out. He sort of nodded at us and then just began walking away from the scene, leaving his car sideways in front of us. My girlfriend and I both stepped out of our car, not really sure how we’d best tackle this situation. We weren’t sure if we should talk to the guy, call the police, or what. Here’s where things got even weirder.

Sitting in the drivers seat of the car was a woman. Her head was tilted back and her mouth was open. We were confused as we had just watched someone else come out of right where this woman was. My girlfriend and I looked at each other for answers, but couldn’t find any. I tapped on the window of the car. It looked like the only window that wasn’t broken. The woman’s eyes opened and she sat up straight. It seemed as though we had just woken her from a nap. She opened the door to talk to us, and then suddenly looked very afraid.

Our conversation with her was short. She basically told us that she had fallen asleep on her couch and had no idea why she was in the drivers seat of her car, or why the car was so damaged when it had been in perfect condition when she had last used it. We told her that a man had got out of the car from right where she had been sleeping and walked away. I like to tell myself that it was only due to the poor visibility, but none of us could see any traces of him, not even footsteps in the snow.

All she wanted was to go home. This poor woman was terribly frightened. She drove her car as we followed behind her to make sure she would get home safely. She lived in a nice house with her husband and children, who all had noticed that her and her car had disappeared. From there, my girlfriend and I let them deal with it. I don’t know if authorities were called or what ever ended up happening, but honestly, I don’t think I really want to know.