The Road Trip

Motorways are frightening any moment of the day, but at night the fear is worse. At times on a busy stretch of the road, the glare of oncoming traffic will blind you in the darkness; then there is the lonely stretch, nothing but you and the blackness of night. It was upon such a night that we saw it—a flicker of movement by the roadside. At first, we thought it was merely a trick of the light, but as we drew closer, the unsettling shape became clearer, sending a chill down our spines. Returning from a trip in Scotland, we were travelling a lonely part of the M6, and unbeknownst to us, this night would hold two unusual experiences that over time have given me more food for thought than any other unforgettable occurrence. There were three of us in the car: myself, my husband, and my mother, who was sitting in the back seat. The journey was a long one, and we had been chatting silly conversations to keep the boredom away. It was a clear, dry night in early summer, and we had been visiting family in Glasgow, but as all things go, there is always a time to come home, and this was it. There was not a car in sight, just the dark, lonely road, when out of nowhere two lights were sitting right on us, so close that if we opened the boot/trunk, whatever it was could climb in. The lights looked like bright headlights that illuminated the inside of our car, and my husband found it hard to keep control of our vehicle. I looked in the wing mirror on my side of the car; the lights were bright, but I could not see any vehicle. I started to curse, telling my husband to do something when all of a sudden, they vanished. Again, I looked in the wing mirror; there was nothing anywhere on the road behind us, and nothing had overtaken us. We carried on for about another hour. Mum and I were again chatting. I looked out of the window and could not believe what I was seeing. I called out to the others. “Do you see that?” All three of us had seen it in the distance: a large old 1920s Black car travelling the wrong way along the motorway, and as it passed us, it disappeared. I can only think that at some point in time, there had been an old road that ran along directly where this stretch of motorway runs today. I often think about this phenomenon: the lights. Well, maybe a UFO. Most would say that, and the car. I would have loved to know who was travelling most majestically in the old vintage car.