Stuck on the Turn, of the Large S

Translated…

After reading “The Steering Wheel of the Middle-Aged Woman”, it’d made me laugh, and took me back, to when I first learned to drive.

It was the year that my wife, my son, and I signed on for the same driving course, my son got his license in one week, my wife got hers in two weeks, and, this is not an exaggerations, it took me a total of TWO whole years, switched THREE coaches, then, I’d received, a minutely “defected” driver’s license.

At my first driving school, I’d switched two driving coaches; the spring of the next year, I’d switched to another driving school, and as I started to get trained in driving, I’d given my coach the rules of thumb: “First, don’t get loud with me, I’m quite timid; second, I’m stupid, if you can’t manage to teach me, you can quit on me, I won’t hold it against you”.  He’d confirmed that he wasn’t going to quit on me, and said, “if I can’t manage to teach you to drive, then, I will quit this coaching job of mine.”

The hard lessons I’d taken in driving from before, paid off, and whether it be “parking by the curbs”, “reverse into the garage”, “acceleration”, I’d honed up on the skills, I got stuck on, driving in S backwards.

Perhaps, I’d gone to the DPS one time too many, the road test officer always smiled at me courteously, “You’re here again!”, Actually, I’d passed every other driving skills on the practice, only “S in Reverse”, and every time, I’d taken that I’ll just, push my luck on it, and every time, I’d not passed it.  In the final time, I’d passed all other driving skills, and, as I was about to take my weakest skills test, I’d become, even more careful, and in order to keep my own nerves in check, I couldn’t help, but tense up.  And the man who was administering my driver’s exam saw that I was nervous, he’d told the coach, “tell him to take it easy, I need to go to the restrooms and will return shortly.”

The driver saw, that nobody else was there, and, ordered me to drive to the other end of the S, and told me to stay in the car.  Waited until my exam giver came out of the restrooms, he’d asked, “So, how did he do?”, my coach replied, “thankfully, he’d, finally, passed!”  “I was just wondering, how come there was no warning bell?  So I’d guessed, he “must’ve” passed it this time.”

So, I’d gotten my driver’s license the hard way, but I didn’t feel lucky at all, with a less-than-perfect license, for a little over a year, I’d not dared taken myself on the roads.  And my wife called out to me, “You must drive”.

One day, we took a leisure morning, my wife drove me to the reconstruction are number five in the city of Tainan, selected a crossroad with no traffic or pedestrians told me, “You shall just, practice your S driving, especially in reverse; if you didn’t succeed, then, we come again tomorrow.”

And so, I’d driven forwards and back on that road, and my wife followed by, and, jogged along the car, and kept giving me “technical tips”.

Don’t know how many rounds I’d driven, my wife started screaming at me less and less, then several times later, I’d heard her hollered aloud, “STOP!”, I’d tilted my head out the window to look back at her, she was wiping her sweat away with one hand, and with the other, a thumb up, “Amazing!  Especially the last few times, nearing perfect, to the international guidelines!”

Her words were a confident boost for me, I’d hummed that song, and, drove all the way home, in traffic.

Time saves no one, my wife had, gone to another world already, and I’d, entered into a high-quality nursing home in the south, “The Leisure Villas”, that day I’d read the “Steering Wheel of the Elderly Woman”, I’d originally wanted to write, to help me ease my missing my wife but, as I keyed in in front of my computers, tears came falling down, and I’d finished my article, and I’d started, howling aloud, with my mouse in hand.

So, this, is the memories the two of you shared, your wife was supportive of you, in your passage of earning your driver’s license, and, as you recalled back to how difficult it was for you, to finally earn your driver’s license, you’d remembered your wife, and you’d, missed her so…