The Bloody Car

Who will ever believe my story that a car has been after my life? We have heard interesting stories about car accidents and deaths. The two famous ones I would like to point out before writing down my own story.

1.Erskine Ebbin and his brother Neville were killed almost exactly a year apart after being involved in collision with the same taxi, driven by the same driver and carrying the same passenger. Both victims were 17, and both were riding the same moped on the same road. Erskine was killed on the night of July 18, 1975, near the Packwood Home in Sandys. Neville died on July 30, 1974, on the nearby stretch of Middle Road known as Hog Bay Level. Both were reported to have collided with a taxi driven by Willard Manders. So who was the killer in this case? The car or the moped?

2. The other one is the car in which Archduke Franz Ferdinand the heir apparent of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was killed, that sparked off The Great War. It was supposed to have brought bad luck/death to the subsequent owners, before being finally dumped in a museum. Well that may be a fabricated legend attached to a historical event to make the history of the car sound interesting.

So cars can be bloody sometimes. Once it becomes a jinx. The jinxed car is more of a curse…yes to the present owner.

Fig: Franz Ferdinand's car

I have a mechanic friend. His garage got burnt down, and he needed money to rebuild his garage. I offered to help him, but he said it would be better if he gave me his car. So I bought his car. And that is how I came to possess a jinxed car. And then began my troubles.

I am a doctor living happily with my wife and two children. I have a son who is five years old and a daughter of two and a half.

I had recently taught my wife to drive a car. So, my wife wanted the car for herself.

One day, my wife took a test drive in the garden. My little daughter was in front of the car, and it sped off all of a sudden, while my wife was parking the car. Luckily, I whisked her away in time and saved her. The car hit the wall, and came to a halt. My wife suffered minor injury on her forehead. I applied first aid, and didn’t give the matter much thought. But my wife wept all day, and promised that she wouldn’t ever touch the car again.

The jinx however, began to work in my family. My son became a case of ADHD. And it was strange, he found solace when he played with the car. He was abnormally quiet when in the car. And that made me suspicious. It was strange to see my little son go out in the night and I would find him sleeping inside the car. And when I asked him how he ended up there, he seemed to have no memory.

It might be that my son was suffering from somnambulism. I decided to observe him in the night. That day, while I was returning from work, I found to my horror, the brakes of the car was not working. I am a very cautious man, and usually drive at 60 km/hr, and therefore never had an accident in my life. And here my car brakes had failed. I felt something strange and cold in the car. And before I could think another thought, I saw a big truck coming in front of me. In an Instant, I tried opening the doors, which seemed to be jammed. I kicked hard after pressing the knob. Fortunately, the door gave way and I lunged out. My body hit the road-side grass, and I rolled. I had abrasions, but was not badly hurt. But to my surprise, the truck had stopped and the car had also just stopped before it could collide with the truck. The truck driver screamed at me, shouting curses. I explained the brakes had failed. I was shivering. He came and checked. Everything was working fine.

He glared at me, and I was like WTF!

I knew in my guts, something was terribly wrong with the car. I wondered if I should continue to drive or leave the car there.

I would have to walk home another 6 km, until someone didn’t give me a lift. I decided to take the car, maybe it was working fine.

 ‘Maybe, I hadn’t pressed the brakes enough hard’, I said to myself after a second thought.

 I took the car and drove it. It was all well. My wife was waiting in front of the house for me. I tried to slow down, but I realised the brakes had once again given way. I screamed for my wife to run aside. But it was too late. I hit her, as the car crashed against the wall. I was not much hurt. I ran out to see my wife. She was bleeding, but alive. I couldn’t trust the car again. I immediately called my hospital to send me an ambulance. My wife was taken to the hospital. I accompanied her while I left my children at home.

I had asked my son, to look after his sister.

 “Is mama, alright?” my little daughter babbled. My heart wept. I reassured her, that all was fine. “Dad would take care of everything.”

I was worried about the car. It had behaved quite oddly.

After some days I took the car to the mechanic. I told him what had happened.

“Sir”, he said, honestly. “The car is jinxed. After I had bought it, my garage got burnt. The owner who sold me the car, told me his wife had died because of it. I didn’t believe him. But now I really do believe it is jinxed.”

Drops of perspiration appeared on my forehead. I decided to investigate the history of the car. From the series of owner who possessed it.

It was rumoured the son of the first owner was murdered in the car by his friends. The son had been murdered inside the car (as there were blood spills) and his body was found in a river. The owner had been grieved and sold the car at a very cheap rate thinking it had brought bad luck to his family.

The next guy who bought the car was a contractor making roads. He was a jolly young and happy man. He had been married to a beautiful lady, and loved his wife a lot. It was said the car had some prejudice against the owner. While starting the car, it suddenly moved forward and hit the lady killing her. The man was grieved. While returning from the autopsy, he stopped to have a drink. God knows, how his drink was poisoned, he said he felt a tingling sensation in his arm. It spread all over his body, and before anyone could suspect anything, he dropped down dead.

The inheritance of the car passed to his brother, who was a contractor of buildings. One day while he was going to the construction site with some of his workers, the car seemed to move in the opposite direction. And suddenly it overturned. All the workers escaped unhurt. Only the brother was killed. The workers, removed his body and took him to hospital. It looked like he had suffocated inside the car. Not much external injury!

The car changed hands. A farmer bought it. And soon, the farmer’s wife was bitten by a snake. Well that had to do nothing with the car, but when the farmer took her to the hospital. On the way, the car broke down and refused to budge an inch. The farmer was left in nowhere and he waited for some vehicle to pass by in the wilderness. He spewed curses and kicked the car. But when help did finally come, the farmer’s wife had breathed her last. Enough was enough, the farmer sold the car to a mechanic.

The mechanic made some changes, repainted and gave a new look to the car. He thought the jinx was a hoax, until one day his garage was burnt down. Miraculously the car escaped any damage. Thinking it was just a loss of property, it would be safer to do away with the car before it would claim someone’s life in the family.

And that’s when the mechanic sold the car to me.

After finding the history, I was confident the car was jinxed. I decided enough was enough. The car had claimed too many lives. It was time to do away with it.

 So, that night, with a cheerful mood, I put on my earphones and thought of happy times. I drove the jinxed car to the river. The bridge railing had fallen in some places, and was under construction. And that’s what I needed. I stopped the car, and got off. Then I pushed it off the bridge into the river. There was a loud splash as it sank in. I gave a sigh of relief. Maybe, our lives and many other lives would be safe. I didn’t care about the money I had lost buying it.

I walked home. I was too happy to ask anyone for a ride. I walked 5 km home. Yes, in the lonely night I walked home all alone! I was happy, a sense of inner peace lingered in me. That night, I slept soundly- a dreamless sleep. A great weight had been lifted from my chest. My family felt safe now.

Next morning, I woke up to the sound of loud honking. I wondered who it was. I rushed downstairs, to see the car. I rubbed my eyes. I had pushed it into the river, hadn’t I last night?

My son was inside it.

“Dad, I am going to crush you under this car,” he smiled peevishly…