Chapter 2: Genki behind the wheel
The morning after Genki took his written driving test, he arrived at the driving school at 9:00 to take the road test. After he waited in the office for about fifteen minutes, a fat bald man walked in the door. He asked, "Are you Genki?" Genki got up from his chair and said, "That's me!" The man said to Genki, "I'm going to be your driving instructor for the road test today, so let's go ahead and get started." "All right!" Genki exclaimed enthusiastically. They both walked out to the parking lot where the driving school's cars were parked. "We're going to use this car today," said the driving instructor, as he pointed to an orange 1990 Honda Prelude with yellow bumpers, a sunroof, and automatic seat belts. Genki shouted, "Yes! A sports car! Just what I've always wanted to drive!" The overweight driving teacher handed the keys to Genki, and Genki unlocked the car doors and they both got in. He cranked up the car and put it in Drive. The car didn't move, so Genki floored the accelerator. Again, the car stayed put. Then the instructor said, "Yo, Genki. You left the parking brake on." Genki replied, "Oh yeah. My bad." Genki released the parking brake lever, and the car jerked forward a little bit with the sound of screeching tires.
Then Genki drove around to the empty parking area behind the building where several orange cones were arranged in different patterns. The driving instructor pointed to one set of cones and told Genki, "What I want you to do is weave in and out of those cones, and do it again in the opposite direction," while making a zigzag motion with his finger. Genki pulled up to the right side of the first cone and stopped the car. Then he let his foot off the brake pedal, turned the steering wheel to the left, and tapped the accelerator pedal. Genki then jerked the wheel to the right, and the car knocked over the third cone. The man told Genki, "All right, you went a bit too fast that time. Just take it easy." Genki steered the car through the other cones with no problem. The driving instructor scribbled some notes in his notepad, then pointed to another set of cones and said to Genki, "Now I want you to back the car up between those four cones." Genki drove the car up to the edge of the pavement, and then put the car in Reverse. The car slowly approached the four cones arranged as a rectangle. Genki steered the car until it was within the cones, and he did it without hitting any of the cones. The instructor scribbled more notes in his notepad, then he told Genki, "Now you have to parallel park between those four cones at the other end of the lot." Genki drove the car towards the other side of the pavement, turned the front wheels to the left, and backed the car in between the pairs of cones. Then he put the car in Drive and hit a cone with the front of the car. "Damn it!" he said, banging his fist against the steering wheel. Genki put the car in Reverse again and turned the steering wheel to the right. He tapped the accelerator, hit a cone with the back of the car, and slammed on the brake. "Crap! I can't do this!" Genki said loudly. The instructor said to Genki, "Chill, man. You didn't do too bad; you just need to practice parallel parking some more. For the most part, though, I think you're ready to drive on the road now." Genki drove around the building to the front parking lot and stopped the car before turning onto the busy street.
While Genki was waiting to turn onto Toshiba Boulevard, the driving instructor said, "When you get a chance, turn right and stay in the right lane." Genki turned on the right turn signal lights and waited several seconds for a break in the traffic. Then he turned onto the highway and accelerated until the speedometer reached 60 MPH. Just then, Genki noticed that they were way too close to the red pickup truck in front of them, so he took his foot off the accelerator pedal for several seconds, and the blue sedan behind Genki came up extremely close to the orange Prelude and blasted its horn four times before dangerously overtaking the sports car. Genki's instructor told him, "You always gotta pay attention when you drive." "But I WAS paying attention, so cut me some slack, Jack!" Genki replied. The instructor said to Genki, "I know, but you should never make the assumption that all the other drivers on the road are paying attention to you. If you do make that assumption, you become an ass, and the ump will shun you." Genki continued driving down the highway for about three minutes, then he asked, "Can I turn the radio on?" "Sure," said the instructor. "But don't turn it up too loud." Genki turned on the car radio, and then turned the tuning knob until he found 103.1, the All 80's Station. The song "Get Out of My Dreams; Get Into My Car" by Billy Ocean was playing, and Genki said loudly, "Hey, that's my jam!" Then he started singing along: "Get out of my dreams. Get into my car. Get out off my dreams... backseat baby, get into my car. Get out of my mind. Get into my life..." The instructor told Genki, "Okay, you see that traffic light up ahead? I want you to turn left on that street." Genki turned on the left turn blinker, looked in the rearview mirror, and glanced over his left shoulder out the driver's side window. When the left lane was clear, Genki merged over into that lane. As he approached the intersection, Genki took his foot off the accelerator and gently applied the brakes. Suddenly, a gold van with red bumpers moved into the left lane just a few feet in front of Genki's car. Genki slammed his foot down on the brake pedal, and with the sound of skidding tires, the car came to a stop about six inches from the back of the van. The driving instructor took out his notepad and scribbled some notes on a blank page. When the left-turn traffic light turned green, Genki (and five other cars in the left lane) turned left on Panasonic Drive, and the song "Don't Stand So Close to Me" by The Police began playing on the radio. After traveling for about two blocks, they approached a stop sign at a four-way intersection. The gold and red van in front of Genki came to a stop at the stop sign, and Genki slammed the brake pedal and stopped just a couple of inches behind the van. The van drove straight through the intersection, and Genki pulled the car up a little closer to the stop sign. "Genki!" said the instructor, "You see how close you came to rear-ending that van?! You need to hit the brakes a lot earlier than that in order to stop soon enough. This car can't stop on no dime!" The young boy said, "All right, I'm sorry. I'll try to do better." "Yeah, right. That'll be the day." mumbled the driving teacher. "What?" asked Genki. The teacher said, "Oh, I said 'Turn right on this street.'" Genki turned on the right turn blinker, and he looked in both directions until no other cars were coming. Then he turned right onto Onkyo Street and accelerated until the car reached 65 MPH. They passed a sign which said "Speed Limit 45 MPH", and the fat man said to Genki, "Slow down a little bit. The speed limit is only 45." Genki took his foot off the accelerator pedal until the car slowed down to 45 MPH. A few minutes later, they passed a sign that said "Sony Expressway 1 ½ Miles". When they reached the expressway, Genki turned right onto the entrance ramp and accelerated until the car reached 70 MPH. While Genki's car was cruising down the highway at 70 MPH, the instructor said, "Just stay on this expressway until we get to the Samsung Avenue exit." When they came to the exit ramp, Genki turned right onto the ramp and gently applied the brakes, and the car came to a complete stop at the bottom of the ramp. Genki saw that no other cars were coming towards his car, so he hit the accelerator and the car peeled out onto the street. The driving instructor picked up his notepad and scribbled down some more notes. Then he said to Genki, "It's about 11:00. You want to stop somewhere and get some lunch?" "Sure," said Genki. "But I don't have any money." The instructor said to Genki, "It's all right. I'll pay for it." About five minutes later, Genki saw a Moo Burger restaurant up ahead, and he turned on the left turn blinker and stopped in the turning lane. After a few cars passed and the road was clear, Genki turned left and pulled into the parking lot outside of the restaurant.
Genki and the driving teacher walked in the restaurant and stepped up to the counter. The young man behind the counter looked very tired; his eyes were red and watery, and his light-brown hair was messy looking. He said in a bored voice, "Welcome to Moo Burger. Can I take your order?" Genki looked at the menu sign above the counter for a minute and said, "I'd like a Double Moo Supreme with cheese, medium fries, and a large cola." The driving teacher said, "I'd like a Mini Moo burger with cheese, mayonnaise, ketchup, and pickles, large fries, and an Over-Size diet cola." The man behind the counter rang up the order on the cash register and said, "That'll be $6.57." The overweight driving instructor took $7.00 out of his pants pocket and gave it to the cashier. Then the cashier gave the instructor 43 cents and a tray with his and Genki's food on it.
After they finished eating, Genki and the driving teacher got back into the orange and yellow sports car. Genki cranked up the car, put it in Reverse, and slowly backed out of the parking space. Then he put the car in Drive, made a tight U-turn, and headed towards the street. Genki turned left and came to a stop at the intersection of Samsung Ave. and Panasonic Drive as the traffic light turned from yellow to red. When the light changed to green, Genki drove straight through the intersection. Two minutes later, he stopped at a stop sign at the next intersection. "Which way should I go?" asked Genki. The fat driving teacher told him, "Turn right." Genki turned on the right turn signal and looked in both directions before he made the turn onto Sanyo Road, which led through a residential area where the speed limit was 35 MPH. Genki tried with all his might to keep from driving faster than 35; he would just tap the accelerator pedal every now and then. As they approached the traffic light at the Sanyo Road / Toshiba Blvd. intersection, the driving teacher said, "Okay, now turn left at this light, and we can go back to the driving school." The light turned green, and Genki peeled out of the intersection as he made the turn into the left lane on Toshiba Blvd. After driving down the busy street for a few minutes, Genki saw the driving school up ahead on the left. He slowed the car down before stopping in the left turn lane, and waited for what seemed like an eternity for a gap in the oncoming traffic. Then he drove into the front parking lot outside of the building and parked the car.
Before getting out of the car, the driving instructor scribbled more notes in his notepad, and then he tore out the paper and handed it to Genki. The boy looked over the notes and the instructor told Genki, "Your driving skills are OK, but I did notice a few problems. First of all, you wait too long to stop at intersections and you slam on the brakes. You also accelerate too quickly after stopping the car. And, of course, you need to work some more on parallel parking. With that in mind, I'm going to give you a 75 on the road test, which is a passing grade." "Thanks a lot," said Genki. They both went inside the driving school office, and the driving instructor handed Genki two sheets of paper to fill out. "This is information for your driver's license," he explained to Genki. After Genki finished filling out the forms, he and the instructor went into another room with various machines. The young boy stood in front of one of the machines, which was a large camera. After the camera took Genki's picture, another machine printed out his driver's license. "Yes! I got my license!" Genki said excitedly.