and one more got eliminated

the signpost on the side of the road had a right turn arrow on it, and below it the number 3 and 5. the driver of the corolla blinked.

he was certain that the right turn ahead of him was quite sharp, as he had gone on this road many times in the last two years, but he always wondered how fast he could actually take the turn. he didn't bother breaking during the downhill, and now his speedometer needle was pointing at 70. should he brake? he was certain that the signpost said 35, but thanks to his education in physics, he convinced himself that 70 is close enough to 35 since they're of the same order of magnitude, and he decided not to slow down.

he steered the corolla to the right, slowly. it was all good; he could feel the centripetal force acting, but the corolla's tire grip could still handle it.

then he realized his car is slowly moving towards the opposite lane. there was no oncoming car, but he thought it would be a good idea to not invade other people's lanes, so he steered more to the right, which turned out to be quite a bad idea.

the rear part of the car lost its grip and started hovering to the left. he realized the car is going straight downhill at a forty-five degree angle to the direction, which was not in any way the proper way of going downhill, so he countersteered. he turned the wheel to the left to recover, but too much.

the car flipped position almost instantaneously. the front part spun towards the left and the rear part to the right. the car was now perpendicular to the direction it was going, which was worse than it already was. without further thinking, he slammed on the brakes. not that this was reflex either. he was trying to think about whether he should brake and stop the car or whether he should just let it flow, but for some reason his mind did not want to think so he had to give up and resort to braking.

the car stopped, facing uphill. he looked throught the windshield, smokes were everywhere. he could smell the rubber he just burned. his heart stopped beating. his mind stopped working. he looked around.

no cops. good. he just got a speeding ticket two months ago, so it would be preferred that he did not get another one. then he realized that his car could have flipped and he could have died. his mind started working again, and his heart started beating again.

he took his foot off the brake pedal and drove away, laughing at himself for being so stupid.

never again, would he do anything so stupid, but deep inside, lurking, was the feeling that he craved more of thrilling experiences like that. maybe in the future. but not anytime soon.

he laughed again.