A Story Told In Four Perspectives:

Thomas

Today’s our first ever trip to the Great Ocean Road. We had to get up early. We were traveling on a freeway when I asked: “How close are we to the Great Ocean Road?”

Dad, who was on the steering wheel, was quick to reply. As if almost forgetting the road was even there, he turned around. Dad’s dark brown hair was shining in the sun.

“We’ve got a couple of more hours to-”, suddenly he stopped. There was a loud crunching noise. Way before dad could even turn his head, he pressed on the brakes and turned on the hazard lights. Dad had always had good reflexes. One day mum had told me that when I was a baby, one of my aunties accidentally dropped. She said that dad, who was nearby caught me in without a second thought. Those reflexes didn’t help today though. Mum suddenly screamed. An unconscious body was flung onto the windscreen.

Damien

Police sirens were wailing. I couldn’t believe I turned around from the road. The person was not dead, only unconscious. The driver of the car that the now unconscious person jumped out of told the police that the person was talking about committing suicide all day. The unconscious person was being driven to a mentally disabled home when she jumped out of the car and started to walk on the road. That was when we hit her. After a lot of investigating, the policeman at the scene said that we were free to leave because there was not much evidence against us and the lady was trying to commit suicide anyway. I opened the door of the car and sat down relieved. We had escaped with only a cracked windscreen. I recounted the decision to my wife as I waited for the road to open again.

Mandy

I was still remembering the collision with that crazy lady as we were driving to our destination. We’re running a bit later than planned, but we’re going to get there anyway. Damian is concentrating on the road a lot more than usual. We were only an hour’s drive away from the start of the Great Ocean Road. Thomas is also being quiet; probably to make sure no more mishaps happen. Suddenly there was a crash. I quickly turned around to see a car crashing into ours. Damien suddenly put on the brakes. I was jerked from my seat into the dashboard. Suddenly all went black…