Join the conversation at the Comment Wall!
Written as part of a project for MLLL 4993
It was the beginning of the new year, January of 2019. A young teenager by the name of Reginald had an awful habit of texting while driving. Not two weeks before had Reginald been pulled over by a policeman for swerving on the road, thinking perhaps he was under the influence. Reginald was simply looking at his phone, however. So ingrained was this terrible habit of his, that Reginald, after being examined and receiving his warning from the policeman, took off and began looking at his phone again not two seconds later. The policeman saw Reginald looking at his cellular device, and so Reginald had his license suspended as a consequence (among other things).
In the present, Reginald had been meeting up with this stranger he had met recently at a local arcade. The two hit it off immediately and soon became quite good friends. Reginald's sister, for he did have a sister, was getting married the coming weekend in a neighboring state, but Reginald lacked practical transportation to his sister's wedding. You see, he lived with his mother and stepfather, both of whom were at odds with his sister, and thus neither of them were willing to drive Reginald to his sister's wedding. Reginald was in quite a pickle. He needed a vehicle, but he had none. His mother and stepfather had forced him to sell his car as punishment shortly after his license was suspended. So, Reginald hatched an idea: he knew his new best friend had an old car in his garage he rarely drove. Perhaps, then, he could convince his friend to let him borrow his car. If he could, then he could attend his sister's wedding as planned.
Reginald put his plan into action; on Thursday of the very week of his sister's wedding, he approached his friend, careful to ease him into the idea of letting him drive the car. Unfortunately, Reginald's friend knew of his recent license suspension, and thus was very reluctant. He knew it was illegal to drive with a suspended license, but he also knew he couldn't drive Reginald himself because he himself had an important job interview that weekend. Reginald wasn't a terrible driver, however. In fact, he took a rather safe approach when it came to driving, excluding, of course, his incredibly unsafe habit of texting while driving.
Reginald saw his friend's hesitation. In an attempt to give his friend a nudge, he mentioned how he and his sister had been talking about this wedding for months. The event was incredibly important to his sister and he felt he needed to be there for her on her special day, so it was absolutely imperative that he made it this weekend. How could Reginald's friend not give in now? So, he agreed to let Reginald borrow his old car for two days, on the one condition that Reginald promised to not touch his phone at any point during the trip to and from the wedding. Reginald, of course, agreed because it was important to him that he attended his sister's wedding.
So, Reginald set out in his newly obtained car to the wedding. But suddenly, Reginald, upon reaching the half-way mark in his journey, heard his phone beep. There, in his pocket, was someone trying to contact him, and Reginald could not resist. He reached into his pocket, pulled out his phone, and opened the lock screen to his messages.
It was his best friend, wishing him safe travels. However, by reading the text message, it became marked as "read," and thus his friend knew he had read his message while he was driving. Reginald closed his phone, ashamed of himself - he knew he had broken his promise. However, it beeped again and he instinctively unlocked his phone once more. Coincidentally, Reginald had taken his eyes off the road for a total of five seconds now, and little did he know he had drifted into oncoming traffic, directly into an eighteen-wheeler. The resulting collision was gruesome; Reginald most definitely did not survive, though fortunately he was the only casualty. Emergency services arrived shortly after to examine the scene, where they found his phone still in his crumpled hands. What had happened was clear to them. They took his phone from his hands, sickened, yet they could not resist themselves. They needed to know what could have possibly been so worth the risk. On the screen of his phone lay one more text from his friend:
"I knew you couldn't resist. You just had to look, and you may just lose your life over your ridiculous habit."
Author's Note:
I adapted one of the two turtle Jataka tales into my own telling. Specifically, I followed the premise of the second story and attempted to modernize it. I hoped that by replacing the turtle with a teenager named Reginald that I could help bring the story into a place where readers could more easily identify with the setting and characters. I also replaced the geese the turtle met at a lake with a stranger Reginald met at an arcade. Most people have been to an arcade, and it's not uncommon for people to find friendship over games. In the Jataka tale, the moral of the story (if you can even call it one) was that the turtle broke his promise to keep his mouth shut and foolishly spoke even though he was using his mouth to hang on to the stick the two geese were using to transport the turtle. I tried to modernize this also by writing the story around texting while driving. By doing so, I was thinking that I could have Reginald promise the equivalent of the geese to not text while driving, and therefore have it so that when Reginald eventually broke his promise it would lead to his demise. I would say most everything else is completely original and was just a way of guiding the structure of the story directly to the ending I desired. It's honestly a little gruesome for my tastes, but I did want to imitate this story directly and I felt it would be too dissimilar if Reginald did not pass at the end.
Bibliography:
"The Turtle Who Couldn't Stop Talking" by Ellen C. Babbit. Web source.