Free Red Flags by C.C. Brown

door. I sat,
hesitant at first, but finally settled into the seat. Jason ran
around to the other side, and took his seat.
    “Alright, you are about to learn to drive
this piece of machinery.” He mocked me. “Adjust your mirror
settings, and get comfortable, it’s really not as hard as you’re
making it out to be.”
    I felt my hands shake as I switched the
mirrors to my settings. The most expensive car I had ever driven
was my mom’s car, and it wasn’t even in the same league as this
one. I decided to give it a try. I turned to look at Jason,
focusing on his every word.
    “Okay, the hardest part about this is getting
out of first gear. Once you figure that out, you can drive this car
like you do any other car.”
    I looked at him completely bewildered, and he
sensed it because his cool, calm demeanor faded away, and he was
all business now.
    “Alright! You have to hold down the clutch in
order to start the car. Put your left foot over the clutch, your
right foot over the break, and turn the key.”
    I dis as I was told, and the car started,
with a thunderous roar. I was a bit startled by the sound of the
car; there was definitely power under all of that metal.
    “Now, remember, whenever you want to change
gears, you’ll have to push down on the clutch. Put the gear shift
in reverse, release the parking break, come off the break, slowly
easing off of the clutch, and give it a little bit of gas.”
    Once again, I followed Jason’s directions to
a tee, and so far so good. This really wasn’t as hard as I had
imagined, but then again, I had only moved out of the garage, onto
the driveway, and into the street. My anxiety was beginning to ease
up on me – thank God for that.
    "Alright …" and I heard the drawl creep back
in, “this is going to be the most difficult part of this process.
Shift the gear into first, and slowly come off of the clutch, while
also, slowly, giving the car some gas.” He started using his hands
to simulate the process, and demonstrated what the two pedals
should look like when done correctly.
    I did exactly what he said, or at least what
I thought he said, and the car lurched forward and stalled. Jason
looked at me, told me to press down on the clutch, and start the
car up again. I went over his instructions again, and again, and
got the same result. The intense stare coming from him had me
flustered and wanting to jump out of the car, but I knew that would
do nothing but infuriate him, so I continued trying, and each time,
the car did the exact same thing. As patient as Jason had been, I
could see his tolerance starting to fade. I was overcome with
frustration, and could feel my eyes start to burn, as tears began
to well up. I internally fumed at myself. He looked at me and
noticed that I was in the beginning stages of an emotional
breakdown.
    “Cara. You can’t accomplish anything like
this, and I’m not going to let you quit – just give it a little
more gas as you come off the clutch.”
    The tears were now streaming down my face. I
usually had success with almost everything I tried, and I didn’t
take too kindly to failure. Jason was right; I wasn’t going to
accomplish anything like that. He took my hand, firm in his, and
looked fiercely into my eyes.
    “Damn it Cara! This just shouldn’t be this
damn hard. You are defeating yourself before you even try.
FOCUS!”
    He was obviously irritated by that point, and
I didn’t think it was with the fact that I was stalling, but
because I had basically relegated myself to failure before even
trying to maneuver the car. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes,
and avoided looking at Jason.
    I pressed down on the clutch, started up the
car, followed his earlier instructions, and in one fluid motion the
car moved – without stalling. I was overjoyed and I let out a sigh
of relief.
    Jason told me to watch the RPMs and listen to
car, but he also instructed me on when to shift. He was right, the
shifting was easy; the hardest part was