Wednesday. My second driving lesson. I wondered if that same instructor would be there. I hoped so. It would take longer to scare multiple instructors off, especially if some were tougher than others.
Once I had walked over to the car, I saw that it was the same one. Poor guy. His face went pale when he saw me. Pretneding not to notice, I opened the car door and sat down in the driver's seat.
Time for some small talk to unnerve him a bit. "Hello, sir!" I smiled, keeping up the false cheerfulness. Not that I wasn't in a good mood. "I'm really looking forward to learning more! Who knows, I could be on the roads in a few months..."
The instructor gulped. "Well, today we're keeping it simple. I'd like you to start the car and carefully drive across the park, keeping within the path of cones." He pointed at one of the cones, still looking terrified. Good.
To pull this off, I was going to have to work carefully. I started the car, making my way through the park. Nice and easy... don't crash... there's a corner, turn slowly and gently... I kept an eye on the instructor, waiting for him to relax.
There! We were almost at the end of the path, and apparently he had decided I wasn't going to screw up. It was time for a bit more careful work.
Now, I would like to say: I did NOT intend to do what I did next. It was an accident. A complete accident. I lost control of the car, by accident.
I just wanted to pretend to spin out of control, knock over some cones, maybe leave some decent tire tracks. But I forgot the main danger of pretending to spin out of control: actually spinning out of control.
It all happened in seconds. The car spun around, getting faster with each turn. Before I could react, we had covered most of the park, and the car was speeding towards a high concrete wall.
No! I had to stop it! I grabbed the steering wheel and tried to turn it. But, in a panic, I couldn't get a grip on the wheel. I started my calm-down routine, but it was too late. The car hit the wall, the hood crumpling in on itself like an aluminium can.
The sound of the crash was hard to describe. It wasn't a smash or a crunch, more of a sickening combination of the two. Shards of hot metal were falling from the twisted wreck of the roof, burning my skin at every touch. I could hear screaming. Was it Mom? The instructor? Me? I couldn't tell. Was I going to die here?
No. I couldn't die. I had to morph my way out. I closed my eyes, trying to shut out the pain. It was hard to focus, but I found the picture in my mind that I needed to get out of there.
I saw the gorilla. And I became the gorilla.
I would just have to hope the instructor wasn't a Controller. And that I could convince him the whole thing was a hallucination or something. Otherwise, a wrecked car would be the least of my worries.
I braced myself as I started to change. The morphing process was always strange and uneven. I couldn't see myself, but I could feel the growing and shifting of my own body. Compared to some things I'd morphed, the gorilla wasn't all that different to my own form (not that I'd admit that to Rachel), but it was still incredibly weird.
A few minutes later, I was a full-grown silverback gorilla from head to toe, complete with gorilla instincts in my brain. At that moment, the gorilla was upset. It didn't like the hot metal cage. It wanted out. Happy to oblige, I thought as I tore the roof open.
Daylight! I had to shield my eyes with one of my massive hands, but I was still happy to see the sun. I kept tearing at the ruined car, tossing chunks of metal aside. Slowly but surely, I gained more space for myself, and cleared more of the wreckage that was blocking me from the instructor. Within minutes, the entire car was scattered across the car park in almost-unrecognizable pieces. The instructor was lying on the ground, unconscious but unharmed. Lucky for both of us.
I looked over to see Mom watching, amazed. She knew I could morph, but hadn't had many chances to see it up close. I guess it was weird to look at an animal, any animal, and know it had the mind of her son. Especially since this particular animal was about four times her size.
{...Does this mean no more driving lessons?} I asked in thought-speak. Thought-speak is this kind of telepathy we can use in morph. It's very convenient, since being in an animal's body doesn't grant us the ability to understand animal sounds.
Mom's lips were pressed together in a thin line. "We'll see." I couldn't tell if she was genuinely angry or secretly amused. "Get in... Become human again and get in the car." I watched her closely as I demorphed, trying to pick up on her mood. But she's too much like me: good at closing herself off when she wants to. She was even better at concealment than me, more careful and practiced.
"Why are you wearing spandex?" Though it was a question, Mom's emotionless tone made it sound more like a comment.
Well, if that's how she was going to be, I would give it right back. "Morphs only work on DNA. We can only do skintight clothes." I told her in my own flat, aloof voice. I got into the car once I was fully human, carefully avoiding her eyes.
We left the instructor there. He wasn't in any danger. Although, if I did have to take more driving lessons, I doubted he'd be the first to volunteer.
The drive home was quiet, just like the day before. Was I in trouble? Was this silence part of the punishment, intended to keep me confused and guessing? Mom knew me. She knew that if I didn't know something, I'd drive myself crazy guessing and theorizing and wondering and overthinking. It's a blessing and a curse, depending on the situation. At that moment? A definite curse.
After what felt like forever, we were home. And just as she stopped the car, Mom slumped forward, her head resting on the dashboard. She burst into uncontrollable tears.
...No. Wait. That was laughter.
She was laughing like crazy, her fist beating the steering wheel. "That was insane! Insane! I mean... a teenager crashing a car, that happens all the time. But a teenager crashing a car, then turning into a gorilla and ripping the car to pieces from the inside? Dios mio, your life must be beyond crazy!"
I nodded. Finally, someone who understood. "You know what's really bizarre? The normal parts. It's weird enough to turn into animals and fight aliens, but later I'll be eating dinner or watching TV and still knowing there's a war raging. That things are anything but normal, but they look totally average."
After Mom was over her laughing fit, she looked up at me from the dashboard. Her makeup was a little smeared.
"I'm proud of you, Marco," she said, suddenly serious. "All you've had to do, you've coped so well. And you've probably had to do things I haven't heard about."
I almost asked what she meant, but I caught myself. I knew. I'd done, or seen things I couldn't talk about to anyone. Not even Mom, as much as I loved and trusted her. Not yet, anyway.
Mom's expression brightened suddenly. "We should go inside. I just remembered, I wanted to make enchiladas for dinner. Want to help?"
I wanted to get my mind off the war, and Yeerks, and driving lessons. Especially driving lessons. "You bet I do."