Extract from 'Idris', in Pravasan Pillay's short story collection Chatsworth

Idris become one of Mo’s favourite topics of conversation with me. As soon as I entered the car for each lesson he would launch into an anecdote or complaint about Idris. Idris seemed to fas­cinate Mo. He said that he had never had a student who had been this difficult to teach.

According to Mo, Idris seemed to completely lack coordina­tion and awareness of his surroundings. There were moments when he appeared to get the hang of driving and the car would move normally for a while, but then, in an instant, the knack would be gone again, and the car would jerk and sway like it did the majority of the time.

Simple tasks like flicking the indicator switch to the right direction or lifting the hand-brake up when he stopped gave him difficulty. “He act like the car is going to eat him or something,” Mo said.

The more he told me, the worse I felt for Idris. I couldn’t understand how something that I had taken to easily could be such a challenge for him, especially since he was so much older than me. It didn’t seem fair. I kept hoping that Mo would have something positive to report, but it never came. 

One incident that Mo related stands out. 

During one of the lessons, Mo had asked Idris to turn into Higginson, which was Chatsworth’s main highway. Driving at higher speeds was going to be tested and up until that point, Idris had only driven inside of Chatsworth at the residential speed limit of thirty kilometres.