Near the very “high class” town of Pekin, I got to take the first step of adulthood and drive for the first time. I began my adventure at my Aunt Jennifer’s house. She dwells near Manito, a small town near Pekin. I entered my families Mazda, checked the mirrors, buckled up, and put it in reverse. As I backed up I came pretty close to hitting my aunt’s Mercedes Benz. This car is special to this lady because she bought this with the money she would profit from buying and reselling this house in Manito. She proceeded to decide not to sell the house and then her husband was laid off, so you can tell the money for that car is really coming in, but I digress. As I back up I apparently came close to the Benz. I knew I was far enough away from it but my aunt and my mother obviously disagreed.

“STOP! You are going to hit my car,” cried my aunt.

I stopped the car and got out to see how close to it I was. The rear bumper of my car was at least a foot and a half from my aunt’s.

“I am not even that close to the car,” I protested. “You shouldn’t have stopped me from continuing I would have been fine.”

I reentered my car and backed up to the end of her driveway. I waved goodbye and got onto the roadway. First ten minutes and I already almost backed into something, I was thinking. I must be pretty good at this. I get to the first stop sign and see a large red F-150 coming. I stopped at the sign and waited for them to go past. All of a sudden they turned at the intersection and surprised me. I hadn’t got over as far as I would have to the right if they would have had their turn signal on, so they were upset that I didn’t. This man’s countenance was contorted into a really curious frown. I started laughing, which he did not like. He slammed on the gas pedal and sped away. I learned two things at that moment. First, I need to be prepared for people doing unexpected things even if they don’t appear to be doing them at first. Second, I shouldn’t laugh or make faces at people while driving. They could get angry.

I pulled onto the road to Pekin and accelerated up to speed. It felt like I was going way to fast. Nervousness would wash over me every time a car sped past me. I felt I was too close to the other lane of traffic and would try to compensate by going to the left more. In turn I was always way to close to the edge of the roadway. Being too close to the edge of the road made me slow down. This caused a procession of vehicles to gather behind me. I would get embarrassed of being so slow and speed up. Thus the process started again.

As I approached my very first stop light I was pretty confident. It didn’t seem that hard. Wait my turn then when the light turns green go. I did my time waiting and it seemed like an eternity. It was probably only a minute and a half though. As the light turned green I was anxious from the wait. I stepped on the gas slightly too hard.
“ARE YOU TRYING TO GIVE ME WHIPLASH?” shrieked my mother.

“Why yes I am mom. Did it work?” I replied sarcastically. Of course she thought I was being serious and decided that I was not fit for driving just yet.

“If you refuse to take this seriously than I won’t let you drive my car anymore,” she lectured.

“I am very sorry mom, I won’t do it again,” I promised.

“I would hope not,” she retorted. For the next ten minutes she refused to talk to me. I for one was happy with that resolve. Normally she isn’t like that, so I just assumed she was nervous of being in the car with a first time driver. During that time I got onto the back roads and started working my way home. Eventually she told me we would need to stop by Glasford and fill up on gas. I thought the idea of me being able to fill up the car that I was actually driving was a pretty cool aspect. Later I found out it is no different from doing it any other time, but just as expensive. I see the sign for the gas station lighting up the sky. The gas station had two entrances to the parking lot. One I would continue straight on the road and then turn right, but the other I would need to turn right at a road ahead of the first entrance and then left into the lot. I figured I would be using the first one.
“You should turn right on this road and then left onto the lot,” she contradicted. I am pretty sure she can’t read minds, but it felt like she was just trying to argue with me. I, not wanting to disagree, put on my right turn signal. I completed the turn then quickly put on the left signal then turned. The car behind me apparently agreed with me that I should have used the first entrance. They made this clear with a very nice middle finger pressed against their window. I would have loved to return the favor but I didn’t since they looked like they had enough problems. The back window to their car was a garbage sack duck taped on, and they had different colored doors. I just smiled and waved.

“He sure was a nice guy wasn’t he?” I spouted.

“Just don’t flip people off like that when you get older,” she scolded.
“Now why would I do that?” I asked.

I parked the car next to the gas pump and started pumping the gas. After I finished we went in to pay for it. I walked up to the counter and handed the man the money.

“Thank you,” he said.

“No problem man,” I replied. Normally I would be more respectful to anyone older than me, even if they work as a clerk at a gas station, but I felt like I was at least equal with this man now that I could drive. I still don’t know why. Maybe that is what little man syndrome is like, making excuses to be more important than you are. I pondered that as I buckled up and started home.

On the way my mother got a phone call saying that my grandfather might have had a heart attack or a stroke. My grandparents were eating at a restaurant in Norris, when my grandpa became unresponsive. My grandmother had just returned from the restroom and sat at the table. She started speaking to him but he didn’t say anything. She started getting worried so she went to go get an employee. As she returned with them my grandpa was still just sitting there. They went to the counter and dialed 911. As the employee talked to the operator my grandmother went to go back to my grandfather. He was gone. She started getting extremely scared but as she glanced out the window she saw him getting in their truck. My grandmother sprinted out the door and went to my grandpa.

“I don’t feel good. We are going home,” he declared.

“We can’t just leave, an ambulance is on the way!” my grandmother explained.

“I frankly do not care,” he stated.

Now most normal people probably would care, but this is my grandpa. He is not normal. Anyway, they decided to just go home and not wait for the ambulance, but they “forgot”, as they said, to tell anyone from the restaurant. Sometime during this whole thing my grandmother called my mother to tell her. My mother and I decided to go and check on them before going home. My house is closer to Glasford than it is to Farmington, so it was out of the way. That is OK though, because my grandfather could be dying. As I pulled into their driveway my mother was already opening her door and trying to get out. I ran inside after her. My grandparents were sitting in their living room on a large leather couch.
“Are you OK dad?” my mother inquired.

“Yeah, I am fine. I just had a low sugar attack.” He replied.

“Well I am glad you are fine.” My mother said.

We get back into the car and I felt slightly upset that no one bothered to call and say, your grandpa is fine. He just forgot to eat some candy. I was happy he was fine and all but you might think that they might have said something. I also wondered what the ambulance would be doing right about then at the Norris restaurant.
Even now I still do not know if anyone from that incident tried to follow up on the two old people, one of whom was “dying”. My grandfather is now fine and his heart his apparently holding up pretty well still.

Luckily on my way back to my house nothing of major interest happened. I pulled into my driveway and put the car into park.

“Well that was fun.” I declared.

“You did pretty well for your first time.” My mother praised.

“Of course I did. Did you expect anything else.” I joked.

I opened my front door and strolled in. I was pretty proud of myself for not dying or crashing.
“How did you do?” questioned my dad.

“I did well.” I responded.

“Good job.” He commended. “Did anything interesting happen?”

“Actually yes. You could say it was an adventure.” I replied.