Man on the motorway: Introduction

Man on the motorway

This is a monologue of a driver in his car, who habitually drives a long way back and forth to work. During the course of the journey he refers to the recent experience he had doing jury service in a court of law. He sometimes imagines that the other drivers on his route are like some of his fellow jurors.

It’s so unbearably hot in here. I can’t breathe properly. Is it me, is it the car or for goodness’ sake, is it the weather? Funny when you drive how you forget what’s actually going on outside. I mean, it is the first of May after all. I suppose I could treat myself to a bit of extra air if I could just manage to open the sunroof, which is admittedly a bit tricky when you’re doing over 70 miles an hour. I don’t know why it is but the moment you lift you left hand up in the air in a car, the right hand starts doing strange things and you tend to zig (oh. Did you hear that car horn?) as I was saying - zag somewhat. I do hope that wasn’t a police car, was it? I don’t see any blue light. Well. that’s a relief! I mean just imagine how it would sound in a court of law: ‘I was proceeding’ says, the police officer, ’ in a northerly direction up the motorway when I saw the accused drive his car in an erratic way while raising his left hand’. Now what would his Lordship, the Judge have to say to that? ‘It comes as a surprise to me that someone who by all accounts has had the advantages of a good education to undertake in such a foolhardy way to place in danger, the lives of other road users’. Yes, that’s just how they sound. Well, I say ‘they’, let’s put it like this, the one that I got to know sounded just like that when I was doing my jury service.

To be continued