(Story was originally written on September 20, 2017)
It’s late. No one is on the road. She’s tired, coming home from a fun karaoke party with her friends.
She tried to keep herself awake on this wide-open road, no car in sight. She turned up the volume of her car stereo, playing her favorite singer, Tsai Chin’s intensely emotional album. She started singing along “不了情” (“Neverending Love”). As any classic would do to listeners, she was completely engulfed by her voice, the sound of the piano and the heart-wrenching melody… While her hands were on the wheel…
Suddenly, there were a pair of headlights appeared from afar behind her car. She noticed it but was more into the music than the traffic. Those lights grew bigger and bigger. She thought: 怎麼開車那麼快? (Wow that car is driving really fast!) Another line of lyrics later, those lights were tailgating her.
“啊唷，怎麼回事?! (What’s going on?!)” She was annoyed. But pretty soon, she realized why: The red and blue lights flashed on from the roof of the car following closely behind. Like a good citizen, she slowed down gradually and started pulling off to the side of the road. She turned down her music. But her thoughts were racing: 怎麼辦，怎麼辦？我開了多快啊？唉我只想要回家… 我該怎麼說呢? (What to do, what to do? How fast was I driving? Oh, I just want to go home… What should I say?)
A policeman walked out of his car. He looked at her with a flashlight, looked in the back seat…
“Ma’am, do you know how fast you were driving? Do you know what the speed limit is here?”
She gave him an apologetic smile and said: “Siry… No speak… Engrish…”
The policeman looked a little surprised. He took a good look at her. Then politely said: “Do you understand English, Ma’am?”
“Leeto bit.” She said with a modest smile and a slight shrug of the shoulder.
The policeman then said slowly: “Slow-Down, Ma’am, It’s-Very-Dangerous-To-Drive-Fast… Do-You-Understand?”
She just smiled without any indication of understanding what he said. He realized he couldn’t communicate with her, so he decided to just let her go.
“Drive-Safely.” He said once again, very slowly. He walked back into the police car, turned off the red and blue lights, and drove off.
