Читать книгу The Taylor TurboChaser - David Baddiel - Страница 17

“Press the—” began Rahul.

But it was too late!

They were heading directly for the corrugated-iron doors of Agarwal Supplies, and Amy didn’t have time to look down at her fingers. The only time she had was what you might call “reflex time” – that is, the split second when the body takes over and does something by instinct.

And the thing that Amy’s body suddenly found itself able to do, despite never having really done it before, was drive.

Amy gripped the steering wheel with both hands and jerked it all the way round to the left. The Taylor TurboChaser, with surprising smoothness, followed, curving away from the warehouse doors and out into the industrial estate.

But now they were heading right for the skip!

So again, instinct kicked in, and Amy lurched the wheel back to the right, just missing the fridge that had been dumped next to the skip.

Which would have meant they were through this sudden and unexpected obstacle race, had it not been for … the dustbins!

“AAARGH!”

The dustbins were arranged in a way that avoiding them completely was almost impossible. Turning away from one would have meant driving straight at another. Amy’s only choice was to slalom! Which, for those of you who have never seen someone skiing, means “zigzag”!

So she did, turning the wheel very quickly this way and that, making the vehicle rock on its sides as it twisted and turned past one dustbin, then another, then another, then all of them.

She brought the TurboChaser back round. It was still powering away from the dustbins.

“—blue button!” finished Rahul.

“What?”

“I’m finishing my sentence from about three minutes ago! Press the blue button! It’s a brake!”

“Oh!” said Amy, and she pressed it.

The Taylor TurboChaser came to an abrupt halt: a very abrupt halt – Amy and Rahul were thrown forward in their seats in a way that made Amy very thankful indeed for the seat belts.

“Wow!” said Rahul, as gravity settled him back into his seat. “Who taught you to do that?”

“No one,” said Amy. “I just did what came naturally!”

“Well, you can really drive!”

Amy looked at him. “I guess I can. And you, my friend, can really invent. Because what you’ve made here –” she said, holding her arms up and taking in the whole vehicle “– is a supercar!”