Timothy stayed resolute despite the horns behind. He had moved over slightly, giving the ambulance, which was racing up behind the queue of traffic enough room to get past him, if, it were to put its right wheels on to the grass verge that was. What he was not prepared to do was cross the solid white line while the light remained red.
He had completed his first aid at work course, and he knew the first rule was not to put yourself in danger. By crossing that line, he would putting himself into danger.
The ambulance’s siren blared, the car behind Timothy flashed its lights and honked it’s horn. Timothy sat patiently. He would not make the situation worse, how was it his fault that no one behind him had been prepared for this incident, like he had? He had driven up to the lights, making sure to slow early predicting the amber light, assessing the situation he taken the centre of the lane, stopping 1.90 meters behind the line. After sitting there for thirty second he had heard the siren. As soon as he knew it was behind him, he instantly knew that he had a spare 1.65 metres to his left, he edged forward slightly and then proceeded in turning his wheel over, never steer when the car is stationary, his driving instructor had told him. You will reduce the tread on the tires thus reducing their levels of grip in the short term. In the long term you could cause vibration issues through misbalance. He drove in a large S ensuring that his car ended up perfectly perpendicular to the line, parallel to the barrier on his left. He knew that the very front most edge of his car sat perfectly above the line.
The man in the car behind Timothy made a rude gesture, spun up his wheels and darted around Timothy’s car, pulling in aggressively in front, just as his car slammed to a halt the light went green. Timothy could see the man in his own rear view mirror still ranting and raving as he drove away.
Timothy watched as the ambulance bounced up on the kerb which separated the road from the grass verge, despite of the fact that the light was green Timothy knew the prudent thing to do was to wait for the ambulance to pass before he himself pulled away from the junction. The sirens were still blaring as it edged its way alongside the car queue. Timothy made a mental note of this, he would write a letter to the local hospital telling them that the ambulance should have turned its sirens off as it was certainly above the 85dB limit which causes hearing damage.
When the Ambulance was about to draw pass Timothy it drove up on to the verge fully. Then stopped. Out of the front jumped a young lady, who rushed over to the car window and tapped on it.
“Hi. Are you Jimmy Hunter?”
Timothy looked at the woman blankly. She looked back down at the tablet she was holding, ignoring his gaze. The light turned red again.
“Jimmy Hunter? Born 23rd June 2002? Father named Dave, mother named Andrea?”
“I’m Timothy Hunter.”
“Oh” The woman continued to look at the tablet “Were you born 23rd June 2002?”
“Yes”
“And is your dad called Dave?”
“Yes”
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“And is your mum called Andrea” The woman was flicking through pages on the tablet
“Yes. May I ask what this is all about, shouldn’t you be rushing off to an emergency?” The light turned green.
“Is this your handwriting?”
“No, that’s my mother’s. Did they not teach you cursive at school? That clearly says Timmy not Jimmy.”
The girl looked at the tablet again and pulled a face. “I suppose it does, the image recognition algorithm must have got this one wrong. I’ll make a note in your file”
“Also only my mother calls me Timmy. Please update the file to say Timothy.” Timothy said assertively. He wasn’t going to let this young girl disrespect him.
“OK… Timothy… then you are the one we are looking for” She looked around to the ambulance and gave a thumbs up to her fellow paramedic who was sat on a camping chair in front of the ambulance. “Did your mum buy you that watch?”
Timothy did not like the way this insolent woman had said mum. “Yes, she bought it for me on my 53rd birthday.”
“Excellent, then you understand it’s precognitive abilities then.” The traffic light turned red again.
“Yes I do actually, I studied the manual rather thoroughly. I had to do some reading because the patents are still confidential but I understand that the watch can look several minutes into the future and predict what is going to happen by-”
“That is correct. So, when the light turns green again I need you to just drive away normally OK? Trust us everything will be fine”
This flipped a switch in Timothy’s head. “I beg your pardon? You’ve come screaming through here with your siren, pulled up next to me and then asked me to just drive away normally? Don’t you have a real job to do?”
“Timo-”
“Show some respect to your elders young lady. You can address me as sir if you need to.”
The woman breathed deeply, Timothy could see that she must not have had a very good upbringing. The light turned green.
“Sir-“
“What’s your name? I’m going to write a letter to your supervisors about this.”
“Jo, dispatch number 7384r6. The more time it takes the worse this will get.”
A huge articulated lorry ran the red light to the right, careening through the junction, Timothy’s rage was so overwhelming he didn’t even notice it.
“Stop your prattle child, can’t you see that I’m writing down your details.” Timothy wrote down the name and the dispatch number, he thought twice about asking for the girl’s family number but thought better of it. A mongrel like her probably wouldn’t even know who her family was. The light went red again.
“Sir. If you don’t go soon we may not be able to help, fate says that today you have an-”
“Do not think of telling me what to do child. Here you are driving around like a lunatic. Then you cause this traffic jam behind me by your pratting about. You are a disgrace to your profession.” Timothy stared down the girl “Tell your manager over there to come here.”
“Sir he is not my manager-”
“Well I think we have found the problem then haven’t we. Tell him to come over.”
As the light turned green the girl turned around and walked over to her colleague, Timothy swore he heard her mumble “Prick” under her breath. As he watched her walk away an out of control steam roller trundled through the junction, it bounced over the barrier to Timothy’s left, less than half a meter away, and carried on down the road. Timothy was oblivious to this, he was already amending the draft letter he had in his mind. After a brief conversation the man walked over.
“Good afternoon sir. Sorry to bother you today but we really need you to drive away the next time the light turns green,”
“Finally, some sense. Your colleague has been exceptionally rude to me. I will be writing a strongly worded letter to your bosses about this.”
“I understand sir” The man said sincerely.
Timothy felt defused. It was such a simple thing to listen to someone, why some people couldn’t do it he just didn’t know.
“What’s your name? I would like to include in my letter just how helpful you were. It might earn you a promotion.”
“Joe 7384r7. The light is green sir.”
High above the conversation the hook securing a helicopter’s under slung skip full of anvil’s had a catastrophic failure.
Timothy wrote the name and number down. “Thank you again. One last bit of advice, your colleague should smile more.” Timothy wound up his window and drove away.