Another problem solved. I don’t have to drive on the main road to Blenheim. An ambulance is going to meet us at Havelock, at the beginning of the road. Grandma arranged it with the hospital. She shouted so loud she hardly needed Lissy’s phone.

“Why do we meet outside the public toilets?” I ask.

“Because I need a restroom, stupid boy,” she says. She leans close to Grandpa who doesn’t open his eyes. “Oil drum!” she snorts. Then she yells at me. “Don’t just sit there! Get moving!”

No one talks for a while. I think we’re all hoping that Grandpa will wake up and make one of his stupid jokes, but that doesn’t happen. The only sounds are car noises: the swish of the tyres in the wet, and the soft thump of the windscreen wipers. We’re now on a sealed road, still lots of bends, but no more mud and bumps. Lissy has fiddled with the ventilation controls so warm air is coming in. We need that. Wet clothes are cold clothes, even in summer.

Lissy says, “There’s a red truck behind us. I think he wants to get past.”

I can’t see in the rear vision mirror. “Is he close?”

“Very.”

“There’s no place to pull over,” I tell her.

A horn sounds behind us and I jump. It’s a loud aggressive sound, two blasts meaning “get out of my way”.

“Idiot!” yells Grandma.

“Can you drive faster?” Lissy asks.

Panic always makes me feel sick. “No. No, I can’t drive faster. Look at the road! One bend after another.”

“He’s right behind you,” she says.

The driver blasts his horn again. That does it. There’s nowhere to pull over so I stop on the road. The truck stops behind us. Now I can see it, bright red and just one person. It’s not a man. It’s a woman and I think maybe she’ll get out and come over to our car. She doesn’t. She backs a little, and then drives past us.

Grandma has wound down her window. “Take a long walk over a short jetty!” she yells.

I don’t think the woman hears her. She just looks at me, her eyes opening up like she’s seen a ghost. I want to shout, “I can’t help it if I’m small,” but she is past us. Her truck spurts exhaust fumes and is out of sight in seconds.

“Do you think she’ll report me?” I ask.

“Nah,” says Lissy. “She’s too full of herself.”

I put the car into gear. I admit to being exceptionally pleased that I don’t have to drive further than Havelock.

The road gets wider and straighter, the cars behind me can pass without difficulty, and because there’s so much rain and mist, I don’t think anyone notices me sitting behind the wheel. Although it’s not yet six o’clock, the sky is heavy and all the cars have their lights on. The weather may make driving difficult but it is definitely in my favour, although that doesn’t stop me from thinking every white car we see might belong to a traffic cop.

The white vehicle we want to see is already in Havelock, an ambulance, sleek with rain, parked right outside the public restrooms. It’s so conspicuous that even Grandma spots it from a distance. “It beat us!” she says. “Well, how about that!”

There is no parking space behind it, so I pull into the kerb in front, and switch off the engine. Grandma has her window down, head out and is yelling. “Hey! Over here! This is what you’re looking for!” Nothing happens so she says to me, “Sound the horn, Will.”

I press my hand on the middle of the steering wheel. It’s a loud noise, a bit like the red truck that followed us, and it gets attention. The driver’s door of the ambulance opens and a guy gets out, official uniform and stripes on his jacket. He walks quickly to Grandma’s window, glances around the car and sees me at the wheel. He has round eyes and a small black moustache. He points a finger. “You? You, the driver?”

“We didn’t have too many choices!” Grandma yells.

A woman in the same uniform is approaching. “Amanda!” the man calls. “You’re not going to believe this!”