Wrong Turn

Not every day can be perfect, but this one didn't have to go sideways like this. And it all started with the fire extinguisher. And unsurprisingly, it escalated. The next thing we knew, one hour had passed and we were going nowhere just yet.

It's not legal to drive on the highways or any other major roads without a valid license. Since mine's been expired for months now, my brother drove this day. He has a valid license. But you see, that's not all you can be charged for, if guilty. But we assumed we were good to go. We didn't think we'd meet these road safety guys anyway.

My brother had already asked me, "Shouldn't we confirm the car documents?" I assumed that they were fine and hadn't expired yet. Last I checked, they were... But that was probably two years ago. Then we ran right into them, the Federal Road Safety Corps. And they wanted to inspect.

License, check. Insurance whatever, check. Spare tire, intact. Fire extinguisher, present... but empty. And so it began. That was problem number one. Next thing, they requested the entire car documents—roadworthiness and stuff. They found that some of them had been expired since September. Oh boy...

"I really should have checked these things." I just thought to myself. At this point, they had us. For these guys, the next course of action is to sit in the passage and ask you to drive down to their base. That, my friend, is such a bad move. The worst, in fact, because it's like walking right into the lion's den.

Knowing matters would only get worse at their base, we tried to reason with them that we were only running an errand for the car owner and that we'd inform them of all that's wrong when we return home. But nope, they insisted we take the car down to their base.

The car wasn't ours, so we requested that we first inform the owner before we could move the car down. Our parents spoke with them and also tried to reason with them to no avail. So they asked me to stall until they arrived themselves to handle the matter, and then we could carry on with our "errand." How to stall became the million-dollar question in my head because these guys weren't even playing.

Urging them to hold on a little longer, that "I wasn't ready to go just yet," only continued to fuel their anger. Honestly, if I were them, I'd be mad too. But I wasn't them. I was rather the one who they wanted to mount a lot of problems on. So wait, we shall...

The thing is, other than the fire extinguisher, which we should have only been fined for, the documents had only expired four months ago. It wasn't like the car was any different because of that. Anyway, the law is the law, so they did have some ground. It's just that, on getting to their base, they would fabricate new issues to fine us even more.

Standing on the fact that they actually couldn't drive our car for us and neither could day seize the car key, the only option they had was to tow the vehicle. I didn't think they could actually do that. What I was aware of was that I should have gotten a ticket. In any case, bringing the tow vehicle was going to cost them, so it never even came.

Eventually, we managed to get pardon, thanks to some help we got. They let us go, but asked us to better ensure we fixed the documents and got a new fire extinguisher. We couldn't just leave like that, though, so we tried to make peace with them. We finally left on a good note.

Nobody had to remind us. The fire extinguisher was for our own safety, so we immediately stopped at the nearest store to buy one. As for the documents, it's pending. What a way to enjoy one's birthday! We learnt a lesson that day anyway.