The rain is hammering down on the windscreen of the car, wipers going full tilt, striving in vain the keep the multitude of droplets from obscuring the view ahead. The road, distorted through the water is black, glistening, the speed of the wipers causing it to oscillate and sway. The red rear lights of the car in front are spread on, like an ink droplet that had fallen into water... They get smaller as the car ahead moves away, then disappear completely...
Progress along the road is now slower and more cautious, the verges creeping underneath the near side tyres as you are unable to quite so accurately judge the road width...
An electric blue strobe starts to dance in the rear view mirror and as you look up and across, you are almost blinded as the lights flash, scarring your retinas and making it impossible to do anything but slow to a stop. As you apply the handbrake, you are puzzled... The lights remain behind you, unmoving - not getting closer, not passing, not progressing towards its emergency destination.
Your stomach lurches, an immediate feeling of guilt filling your stomach, your mind searching for your transgression that has brought you to police attention. You check your dashboard... No warning lights, fog lights off...no answer to be found there. A checklist runs through your head. No corners to negotiate, you didn't fail to indicate. No alcohol in your body so no drink drive offences. Your head is clouded, full with apprehension and confusion, and the lurching in your stomach continues.
You remain in your car, waiting. As the wipers have stopped and you killed the engine, there is no view ahead other than smeared, glistening blackness. No radio noise, no music, just the click of the indicator, still blinking your obedience in pulling over, and the pounding of your heart, which has moved now from your chest into what feels like your throat.
Your peripheral vision alerts your brain, captures your attention, as a dark figure approaches the driver's window. You are paralysed - looking forwards, hardly daring to turn your head. Your ability to breathe is reduced, your heart still pounding away, hard, fast, regular...the only feeling now you are cognisant of.
Two knocks on the drivers window breaks your inertia, sends a jolt through your body as it inspires a new rush of adrenaline. You turn your head, reach down and scramble for the handle on the inside of the door. You locate it blinding, fingertips now evidently shaking as your fine motor skills advertise their reduction in function. You wind, anticlockwise. Spittles of rain immediately invade the inner sanctum of the car sales the window descends. Wind, whipping around outside starts to lowest the temperature inside the car, bringing with it more and more precipitation.
As the window reaches its nadir, you look up and outwards. The silhouetted figure leans down slightly, torrents of water spilling off the peak of the police hat, shadowing the eyes of the figure and allowing only the tip of the nose and a square jaw, bearded, to be seen.
"Ma'am" a deep, slightly gravelly voice addresses you. As you turn slightly more towards the voice, you feel the horizontal strap of the seatbelt diagonally bisecting between your breasts, emphasising your décolletage and pulling down your sweater so that the Ivory trim of your bra is in plain sight. The voice has a warm yet confident and authoritarian tone to it, calming the previous panic and confusion to a small degree.
"You do realise why I've stopped you...?" The officer asks, letting the ensuing silence build the tension again and invoking a silent questioning of yourself. "No" you reply hesitantly, now looking wide and innocently eyed up at him, desperately seeking some understanding of the situation.
