He stood at the side of the road, making a face at the tail of the departing car and clenching his fists. Lifting blue eyes to grey skies he shivered; his head was bare and he had no coat. Like this, he cursed the threatening rain. But traffic was sparse along this part of the A38 at this time of year, the trail of visitors` cars to the West country had not yet begun. Ridiculous row, her stupid reaction and she had flipped for no reason at all, he was only trying to help. The exasperation in her voice as she told him: "Get out" and the indignation in his own when he answered: "O.K. I will. Goodbye." The speed with which she had parted from him, made him think she had no heart, no love for him at all.

Ten minutes passed and the rain started. A car came by but he didn`t lift his thumb, it was going in the wrong direction. When a smart car with tinted windows loomed he prepared to hail the driver. However it swept past him, drenching him and he gestured to its opulent rear. It was chilly and his shoes were thin. Then he changed position, planted his feet wide apart and thrust his hands deep into his trouser pockets where he found neither coin nor handkerchief. But he fingered his driving licence, brand new and unspoiled. That driving instructor, he had told him he was a natural, that he had a light hand on the steering wheel, that he didn`t drive on his brakes. Not like the way she clung on to the wheel with her foot on the brake most of the time. He couldn`t stand that sort of carry-on. His very words to her were: `Relax, don`t grip the wheel like that and when you get to a corner, change down, brake a little but then take your foot off the pedal and accelerate.`

`Who`s driving this car, Michael?` (She said that in her schoolteacher voice).

`You might be good in the domestic science class, Mum, but you sure as eggs don`t know how to drive a car.`

`And you know everything, do you, son?`

`I passed the test with flying colours.`

`But you have had no experience. What`s more, this is my car, not yours.`

`Let me drive now Mum, please. You said I could. Then we`ll get on better.`

`Not now that you`ve been so cocky my lad. I can`t be happy with you in control.`

`And I`m not happy with you in control, either.`

`Then get out,`

`O.K. I Will.` She stopped the car and he had got out. `Goodbye` he rasped.

`See if you can get a lift back home. I`m going on by myself,` she sounded really peeved.

And that was it, a whole hour ago. Mother would be at his sister`s by now, having a sherry. And if he were there he would be enjoying a can of lager with Bill. He wondered if his mother would be ranting on about him, calling him big-headed and telling them how wicked he was and how he had defied her so left him by the side of the road. Then a sudden thought came to him - was she really at his sister`s? What if she had had an accident? Because she was angry with him had she driven the car really dangerously? Tony down the road lost his Mum in a road accident; he had actually seen her lying by the side of the road, dead. Michael shouted out "Be careful Mum`. But he was all alone beside the road, where she had left him.