While I am an educated man and I have some wisdom in my occupation, that doesn’t  mean I always immerse myself in common sense. It’s New Year’s Eve and I should’ve known better, and it certainly would’ve been better to hire a professional on this night.  But that didn’t happen.  I needed a little adventure on this special evening, the last night of 2016.

I adjusted my seat so that I was comfortable, in the correct position to accomplish all the duties necessary and I had my drink close – easily in reach of my right hand and my blue eyes were seeing clearly without a hint of red and I looked outside at the inky blackness and surged ahead.

It started out ok and it seemed quiet and I just kept going, hoping the freedom released by this adventure would take me to exciting, unknown places. I was confident that I would do fine.  I had done this many times before, sometimes even on New Year’s Eve.  To clear my thoughts, I turned some music on, smooth Jazz/fusion – Down To the Bone.  I immersed myself into the dark journey, buoyed with energy and careful concentration.

My peace shattered quickly when this asshole in the car behind me had his bright beams directly shining high into my rear view mirror, nearly blinding me. He kept following me, no matter where I turned and he adjusted his speed to match mine, even when I slowed or increased my speed.  My heart leaped with the realization that this vehicle wanted to do me harm.   Why else would he follow me for miles and miles?

Suddenly, he pulled up in the lane next to me, and I saw the pistol aimed at me, and I ducked, keeping control of the wheel and the road through peripheral vision, and the rounds splattered my driver’s side window, shattering the glass and leaving it in a meshwork of shattered glass that I couldn’t see much out of, except for the bottom. Taking advantage of few seconds of lull as he reloaded, I slowed down until my bumper was about a foot away from his rear tire and I decided the only way for me to survive was to PIT him.  I learned the Precision Immobilization Technique back in the day, but this was the first time I’d used it for real.  Once in position, I looked through the remaining clear glass and turned my car directly into his side, not braking, continuing my speed, causing his vehicle to be thrown to the side of the road, rolling several times, likely a lethal maneuver in most circumstances.  I sped off, thankful that I could see no witnesses, but a softball decided to jump up and down in my gut when I saw the road ahead blocked by two cars in the northbound lanes.  Thankfully the roads were deserted tonight, but not for long.  The chase had brought us farther out into the country where the boys in blue figured there wouldn’t be much action.  Downtown was where all the drunk driving would occur.

I stopped but they already let off volleys of rounds into my car, through the windshield and thankfully their aim was bad – they were high near the roof. No means of escape, which would’ve been preferred, and I was trapped and realized I needed to shoot my way out of this fucking ambush.  I pulled my Glock 19 out using a cross – draw on my right side and leaning back I saw their torsos, and correcting for the convexity of the glass I aimed low at the first man’s pelvis, knowing that the trajectory through the glass would take the lethal wound to his chest. I fired multiple rounds, the first to break the glass and second to hit the target, and each target was then hit, faces down on the ground, the pavement washed with blood.

I took a deep breath, rubbed my eyes and didn’t want to take my eyes off the page – this author had me spellbound with his action scenes, but I reached to my right, found my drink on the wide arm of my easy chair – a nice rich Bordeaux, perfect for New Year’s Eve adventure, then proceeded to clumsily knock it over, and while trying to recover, threw the novel across the room, pages crinkled and smashed.

What a violent way to end my New Year’s Eve adventure! I looked out at the carnage on the floor, red wine splattered everywhere, book with pages splayed and I just sat in my comfortable easy chair, looked out the window into that inky blankness, collected my thoughts and smiled.  I was safe and happy this New Year’s Eve.

SRC