Maybe because she was distracted, deep in thought, but she didn’t hear the car until she was almost at a sharp bend in the road. She stopped abruptly at the revving of an engine, realising that the car was coming fast. The road ahead of her was completely obscured from view and any vehicle coming towards her at speed would not see her until the last minute, so she pushed herself back against the hedge, feeling the branches catch in her hair.

She edged along, letting the branches scrape the back of her coat, trying to get around the corner to where she knew the road widened a little to allow cars to pass each other. She could still hear the engine, louder now.

Then she realised her mistake. The car wasn’t in front of her. It was coming from behind her. She turned, startled, and saw the car approaching, for some reason with its headlights on full beam, even though the morning was bright with sunshine. She had a moment to think it would be fine because from this direction the car would have seen her. It would slow at any moment to enter the corner and pass her safely. Then panic set in as she realised the car was accelerating.

She gasped and threw herself backwards. The hedge gave way and she tumbled into it, branches scratching at her face and poking into her eyes. The car shot past so close that the side mirror clipped her hand as she fell backwards, the speed of the car propelling her further into the bushes.

There were no sounds of braking and no tail lights flashing. All she could see was the car speeding away.

She remained spreadeagled in the hedge for a minute, trying to catch her breath, then pulled herself upright, aware that she was shaking and gulping air. Not just because of the close call with the car, but also with the unsettling realisation that the car had looked familiar as it had sped away.

It had looked like the one parked in her driveway this morning.

*

His hands were shaking as he gripped the steering wheel. He knew he should stop, turn around, make sure she was ok, but another part of him told him to just keep driving.

It was too late. The damage had been done.

He felt like he was going to throw up. He wound down the window, gulped in air.

He hadn’t seen her. He had been going too fast. He could admit that, at least. But he knew these roads well now and he had overslept this morning. He was late, annoyed that he had had to phone Diana and tell her he couldn’t pick her up after all because he’d slept through his alarm. That’s the kind of thing a schoolkid would do.