“It was a lovely lunch. Thank you,” said Mrs Cotter.
Mr Ovenden was concentrating on keeping exactly five kilometres per hour below the speed limit, so didn’t reply. A line of cars stretched behind him. He rarely looked in the rear-view mirror, so it didn’t bother him.
“I was a traffic officer for twenty years, back in the day, Mrs Cotter,” he said. “The carnage I’ve seen. Speeding — it ends in tears every time.”
“Weren’t you a parking warden?”
“The finest branch of the traffic department, Mrs Cotter. The people skills we had to develop just to get through the day.”
“Speeding?”
“No one knows what’s it like on the mean streets until they’ve had to clean up after a rear-end collision at an intersection. Speeding — why people do it beats me.” He was driving resolutely in the middle of the road the outside lane have recently been repainted as a cycleway. The line of cars behind him grew longer. Someone honked a horn.
Mr Ovenden smiled. “See what I mean? The impatience of this generation. Always in a rush, even if it means breaking the law. The reckless use of a warning device law, to be exact.”
Mrs Cotter looked in her side mirror. The car behind flashed its lights and tooted its horn. She sighed and sunk low in her seat. Why had she accepted his invitation to lunch? He’d taken her by surprise, sidling up to her as she was finishing the washing up at the last meeting. She’d agreed in a rare moment of weakness. Now she was trapped.
“You needn’t worry, Mrs Cotter,” said Mr Ovenden. “You’re safe with me. I’ve never had an accident in my life. I’ve been driving fifty years. These hooligans can use their horns all they like. They can put people’s lives at risk. I won’t.”
In her mirror, Mrs Cotter saw a blur coming up behind, before it sped past. She got such a fright, she reached out for Mr Ovenden just as he saw whatever it was and jammed on his brakes. The car behind, hit them fair and square and was in turn rear-ended by the car behind it.
Later, when it came to Mr Ovenden’s insurance claim, he was most disappointed when Mrs Cotter said she hadn’t seen anything. And the insurance company hadn’t believed a cyclist could travel as fast as Mr Ovenden had claimed. Not even one of those e-bikes. For the first time in his life, he lost his no claims bonus. It was too humiliating for words.