Drive from fear to freedom

‘Okay, don’t panic. Just like we practised. Slowly release the clutch.’ The calm words of the driving school instructor are still echoing in my mind, somewhere in the murky depths of my subconscious where one buries traumatic memories.

I can recall the details of every agonising moment, like a scene from a horror movie: the searing heat of a summer day in Stellenbosch; the snaking queue of cars slowly fighting through rush-hour traffic; the sick, swooping sensation in my stomach when the engine spluttered, jerked and died; and the furious people behind me who all hooted simultaneously when I failed to move. I forgot everything I had been taught in the past two lessons about the accelerator pedal,