When Success Means Just Surviving

If you've never actually tried it, you might imagine that it simply isn't possible to pray, scream, push a car and panic at the same time, but I can assure you that it is. I'd better start at the beginning.

I was on an unfamiliar road this afternoon, and looking for a turn-off that I couldn't find. I pulled on to a patch of gravel beside the road and stopped to check the map. I didn't immediately notice a large farm vehicle coming down a track towards me - I'd stopped outside a farm gate, and I was blocking the driver's exit. I'd have to move the car.

I turned the key in the ignition. Nothing happened. I tried again. Still nothing. I was not enjoying this. Here I was, somewhere I didn't recognize, right in the path of a farm truck, and I couldn't start the car.

I took the handbrake off, and the car rolled backwards just enough to let the farm truck through. With hindsight, that should have made me realize I was on a slope that led back to the road. It didn't. All that I was thinking of was how to start the engine.

The breakdown truck would take a while to get there, and in the meantime someone else might want to get through the farm gateway. I'd have to push the car out of the way.

I got out and gave the car a hefty shove. It moved a little. I pushed again, and it ran gently backwards, clear of the farm gate. I stopped pushing... but the car kept right on moving. Too late, I realized that the slope was not about to let it stop.

Worse still, there was traffic coming – a car, an SUV and an enormous truck – and they were moving fast.

I reached through the window and grabbed the steering-wheel to guide the car towards the hedge. It didn't seem to make much difference. I couldn't reach the handbrake, so I did the only thing I could. I ran behind the car, and tried to stop it.

It was slowly forcing me out into the path of the oncoming vehicles, but even if I left the traffic to its fate and tried to jump clear, the car that was going to hit it would hit me, too. Likewise, there was no way I could reach the safety of the hedge. It was too far away - my own car was going to run me over if I tried. The only hope left was somehow to stop the car.

That's when I found myself, in panic, praying, pushing with all my not-very-substantial might, and screaming at the car to stop.

I believe it was the praying part that worked. I wasn't clear of the traffic by very much when the car at last stood still. I did likewise, and watched as the three oncoming vehicles swept by... so close to each other that if the first one had hit, the others would have ploughed straight into it. Shakily, I got back inside the car and sent up a very incoherent thanksgiving.

Without thinking, I turned the key in the ignition. The engine fired first time, and I gratefully headed homewards to a cup of hot, strong coffee.

Sometimes Supreme Success means just surviving.