Out Of The Flying Pan..

It was an afternoon like any other. The kids were playing, the wifey was reading, I was in the kitchen baking cookies (ok.. so whilst that was actually true, it was likely the first time this scenario has ever played out in my house!) when we all heard the metallic thump and raced to the window. Out the front of our place on the entrance to our driveway sat the car in the below image in a rather precarious position.

The driver had been cruising down the road when he came head to head which a bunch of workers who were upgrading the road and found he wasn't able to pass. Because the road is so narrow and on each side there is a significant drop into either the fields or the storm water canals, he reversed back along a hundred or so meters to our driveway with plans of swinging back into it to turn around. Unfortunately for him, he cut it waaaay too sharp and ended up resting in a nasty spot with one tire hanging off the edge in no-man’s land.

I ran out of the house and jumped our hedge to check that he was ok (and thankfully he was) and quickly found I was at a loss for how to help. By myself there would be no way I could give him the push he’d need to get back onto the road and without knowing Thai well enough, I relied on my pretty superb charades skills (refined after many years living in cultures where I didn't fully speak the language) to tell him to sit tight while I went in search of help. And as it turned out, he was in luck! 

Our Landlady was doing some renovations and it just so happened that there was a truckload full of Thai construction workers on the property willing and eager to follow the hairy white guy acting out what a car looks like when it falls on it's side.

The six of us took our places behind the car and I loaded my shoulder in against the boot in preparation to push. In my minds eye I could see us heaving mightily enough for the tires to find some traction and as the driver turned his steering wheel and eased on the accelerator he would gently cruise back into the center of the road. From there we would guide him safely back into the middle of our driveway and then off he'd go. It all seemed too easy.

"Saam, Song, Nung, Pai!" ("3 - 2 - 1 - Go!")

I shoved my body forward putting all my weight into it and with our combined strength could feel the car lifting and slowly moving forward. It felt stable, steady, under control, but alas, the feeling was all too fleeting. In an instant the sound of the engine jumped from a low rumble to a thunderous roar as the driver slammed the accelerator against the floor and within seconds the tires grabbed hold of solid ground and off he went, screaming across the road and careering straight off the other side.

He hadn't turned his wheel so as to go back along the road. He hadn't planned enough space to adequately stop. In a moment of madness he just planted his foot on the gas hoped for the best.. and the best alluded him.

It was all done within the blink of an eye and I immediately felt like I'd fallen out of synch with reality. Seeing a car leap off the edge and smash down into the concrete storm water drain isn't something you see everyday, and in my mind that was surely not what was suppose to happen, but after a second or two of realising the driver hadn't opened his door I was struck back into reality with the fear that he could have really hurt himself. 

I bolted across the road and jumped on the ledge. Grabbing a hold of the handle I threw open the door where the driver sat pressed up against the dash board, one foot in the air, looking sheepish and shocked but not injured, when he looked deep into my eyes and in a sheepish thick Thai accent spoke words that I will treasure forever more;  

"Out of the flying pan.. and into the flyer."

The seriousness of the moment seemed to dissipate in the face of this wonderful summary of events and I had to bite down on my tongue so as to not laugh. Thai's don't pronounce the letter 'r' but instead replace it with an 'l' and thus left me with the gem of a statement. I grabbed a hold of his arm and pulled him from the vehicle much to his embarrassment.

Within the hour reinforcements arrived to lift his car from it's resting place and with only a couple of moments of craziness they managed to haul it off. Wild Flower was worried about the driver and how he was coping. She voiced her concerns with our landlady with some expectation of offering a hand or doing something kind to help him out but for the second time that day we received a response which will forever live on in our families vernacular. She turned and in a very serious tone said "Oh, don't worry about him, cause he is Lich, leally, leally Lich."