Freelance Book Designer

Drive by wavings

I drive to work, it’s around 1 hour each way, sometimes more. To counter the environmental impact and to combat boredom I carpool with an awesome girl from work. She lives further from work than I do, we’ve both tried catching public transport but alas it adds 40mins each way and $30 to our weekly expenditure, it is cheaper and faster to drive.

A few weeks ago I found myself driving home without my carpool buddy – can’t remember the reason, but we occasionally drive to work separately. Two quarters of the way home, on a three lane road, coming slowly to a stop in traffic a silver 4×4 comes up on my left side and the male driver starts to wave at me.

This is was not a frantic ‘Hey your rear tail lights are out and there’s a man with a hook for a hand on your roof!’ It was more of a ‘Hey single lady, how you doin’?’.
I ignored him and as his lane move forward a little, I used the chance to spy on him using his side-view mirror to see if my over-inflated ego was just fooling me into thinking this man was macking on me and was instead someone I knew. However I was caught out as he too was using his side-view mirror to spy on me and waved! From the quick look I got at him, I didn’t recognise him. Traffic moved and I lost sight of the car. Phew!

Three quarters of the way home as the traffic ebbed and flowed, the silver 4×4 once again appeared at my left side, and the driver resumed his waving. I feinted intense concentration in changing to the far right lane, and he followed my change – all the while trying to catch my eye.
I was pretty worried by now, thinking if there was in fact a man with a hook-hand on my car, or some other auto-related emergency other motorists would have by now tried to warn me as well. Why on earth was this man so intent on gaining my attention!? If it was someone I knew, they would pick up their phone and tell me to stop ignoring them. I had 1km more of this waving would be Casanova, until thankfully he turned off the road to continue his journey in a different direction.

When I relayed the experience to my shiny new husband that evening, he said “Why didn’t you wind down the window and ask him what he wanted?” I was gobsmacked, and replied with “Because I was a young woman alone in my car.”
“Babe, you’ve got a *japanese toy car* I think you’re safe from being car jacked” said he.

The point that my dear husband didn’t get is that there are worse things than being car jacked. Even if the waving man’s intentions were purely friendly, growing up in the inner-city I’ve learnt if you’re a woman alone you’re a target.

It still perplexes me, who was that man? Did I know him? Why haven’t I seen him and his car en route from work again? My carpool buddy’s theory is that she (and her dog-tummy-rubbing impression) have scared the him off. This is perfectly fine, I would much prefer her company and the many impressions she bestows on me during our 2 hour round trip, than that of a strangely persistent, oldish waving man.

Happy new year!