Michael was enjoying the summer sunshine as he walked slowly back to the office. This morning had been similar to so many before it over the last few months. A meeting to discuss message formats for the computer system he was working on for the bank during which he had said very little. He failed to get excited nowadays by arguments as to whether an account code was 10 or 11 characters long. He also stayed quiet during that little speech from his manager about how important the project was and how it needed to be on time. The estimates that he had given for his work were sufficiently inflated that he had no worries about getting his part done on time and somebody else was bound to be late anyway so pinning any blame on them would be easy.
The two pints inside him from this lunchtime should just about make the afternoon bearable. When he got back he would do a bit of work after that just to make sure he was not caught out by deadlines maybe interspersed with a bit of net surfing to keep up with the cricket scores. At the end of the day he had an hours worth of ‘Chief Executive’s Briefing’, being told how wonderful the company was followed by questions – any question allowed as long as it was sufficiently sycophantic. As long as the alcohol didn’t make him fall asleep there he should be OK and should manage to slope off home fairly early
Lunchtime pubs for Michael tended to be a bit of a walk away from the office. That way he could have a quiet pint or two in the corner without having to talk about work in his spare time too. The road he was crossing now was empty now of cars. The trees on either side hid the view of the ugly office block where he worked so that he could have been in the middle of a stroll in the countryside. The view was further enhanced by the girl of about 18 or 19 crossing the road from the other side. Michael smiled to her as they walked towards each other and he tried not to stare too much at her breasts enclosed as they were in only a thin white summer top.
The sound of traffic in the distance suddenly became the roar of a car engine as it approached them down the road. As the roar grew louder Michael started to step backwards but he was too late to get off the road altogether before a large black bmw came roaring around the corner towards him. Michael stared at the driver for a split second before he leapt for the side of the road and the car swerved violently to the right with brakes squealing and managed avoid him.
The girl who had also been crossing the road was not so lucky. Michael heard a sickening thud as metal hit flesh and the girl’s body was tossed up into the air like a doll and landed on the windscreen. Everything was suddenly quiet again as the girl lay motionless across the bonnet of the car, it’s engine now stopped and quiet.
As Michael stood hardly able to move he heard the car engine start again and then suddenly jerk into reverse throwing the body off the bonnet and onto the ground again. It reversed quickly and then spun around and was off back in the direction from which it had come looking barely damaged after all the injury it had caused.
The sight of the car disappearing spurred Michael to run over to the girl in the middle of the road. He looked at the lifeless form in the road with blood slowly pooling beneath it and desperately tried to remember anything he might have known in the past about first aid. When he looked at the terrible injury to the side of her face he knew it was too late. It was then that he added his own vomit to the blood building up on the road.
Michael was not really aware of anybody calling the ambulance or police but they arrived soon after the incident. Michael gave his name as a witness. The police tried to impress upon him the importance of catching the car driver who at the very least could be charged with causing death by dangerous driving but he repeatedly told them that he could not remember the car’s number plate and was not sure that he would recognise the driver again.
It was all cleared up quite quickly and efficiently, considering a life had been taken. Michael had very little to show for the incident except a couple of tiny bloodstains and a slight shake in one hand which he felt would be cured by another pint on the way home. Michael even managed to get back to the office that afternoon. He walked in without mentioning the incident. It was just another late return from lunch – much later than usual but nobody remarked on it.
In fact Michael was just back in time to go in to the Chief Executive’s Briefing. Rachel Brownstock was one of the very few female chief executives of such a significant player in the financial sector, said by many to have more balls than most of the male executives she dealt with on a day to day basis. As she walked into the briefing she looked slightly unsure and nervous and very unlike her normal brash assertive self. As Michael stared at her from the back of the room he knew why she was nervous. He has seen that face only a few hours ago driving a black bmw as it tore into a defenseless young girl.
Just come back to this site after a bit of break and am trying the old writing thing again. Any thoughts gratefully received...
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