8.
Humming along to the radio, Terry broke off to yawn loudly and check the time again. Finding it was well past midnight, he sighed and ran a hand across his eyes. When he had woken up that morning, he had not imagined for one second that he would spend the night anywhere other than by Tammy's side and yet, here he was - miles from home on a dark, lonely road. He had really been looking forward to getting home - the only good thing about leaving Tammy was that he always got a hell of a welcome on his return. Now, however, he was exhausted and would be content to fall asleep in the loving arms of his beautiful girlfriend - after all, there was always tomorrow.
Suddenly, over the sound of the radio, he could hear a fast approaching car and glanced in the rear-view mirror. Seeing a bright set of headlights bearing down on him at great speed, he pulled as far over to the side of the road as he could in order to give the speeding car plenty of room to pass.
"Fucking idiot!" Terry glared as he realised the other driver was not only travelling at well over the legal limit in hazardous conditions, but that he was also paying little attention to the road ahead as he was talking on his cell phone, which was jammed between his shoulder and his ear, and he was also trying to light a cigarette at the same time.
"Now that's a guy who really has a death wish." muttered Terry, glad when the taillights of the car vanished into the distance.
Putting all thought of the incident out of his head, Terry continued his journey, now in its final stages. He reckoned another couple of hours would be all it would take and then he would be home, and it would all have been worthwhile. As he tried to calculate exactly how much further he had to go, he came to a dangerous bend in the road and, although he was a careful driver, he was unprepared for the sight which greeted him. If more time had been available to him, Terry would have realised that the reckless driver who had overtaken him had been unable to control his car as he sped round the corner and, as a result, the car had overturned and was now almost completely blocking the road. As it was, Terry could only swear and slam his foot on the brake. He tried desperately to swerve, but there was nowhere for him to go and at best he could only avoid hitting the obstruction head on. With the noise of tyres squealing on the wet road, the metallic sounding crash of the impact, the grinding sound of twisting metal and the shattering of glass filling his ears, Terry's last coherent thought was of Tammy. Then, everything faded into the comforting blackness of the night.
*****