I’m Colorblind. I Can’t Drive. Chapter 1

Three in the morning. My neighbor Kevin pounded on my door with a group of people, shouting that I was a hit-and-run driver.

The man leading the charge grabbed me by the collar of my pajamas and roared, "It was you! I wrote down your license plate. You hit my dad and just took off. Ran a red light! What kind of monster are you?"

"I'm telling you, my dad's in the ICU right now, in a coma! You're going to pay for this!"

He shoved his phone in my face. The picture showed a car speeding through an intersection. His wife stood beside him, clutching their child and wailing.

I was still half-asleep, my mind struggling to catch up. "What does this have to do with me?"

The other neighbors started chiming in. "She can sleep after hitting someone? That's terrifying!"

"How can we have a murderer living in our building?"

Hitting someone?

I'm colorblind. I don't even know how to drive.

...

"Sir, please calm down," I said, trying to keep my voice even. "I haven't left my apartment all day. I think you have the wrong person."

Kevin lived on the floor below me. We’d always been civil, a polite nod in the hallway. But right now, he looked like he wanted to tear me apart.

He thrust the phone back at my face. "Wrong person? Is this your license plate or not?"

On the screen was the rear of a Porsche Panamera, the plate clearly visible: A123.

I squinted for a second, then nodded. "That's my car, but I..."

"So you admit it!" he yelled to the other neighbors. "You all heard her! It's her car!"

The hallway erupted.

"Typical rich people. Hit someone and then deny everything."

"Look at her face. She’s putting on a good act, playing innocent."

His wife pushed through the crowd with their child, dropping to her knees on my welcome mat. Her cries were heart-wrenching.

"Please, my father is on a ventilator. The surgery is fifty thousand dollars." Her voice was choked with sobs. "That's nothing to you, but it would ruin our family. You can't just leave him to die!"

My scalp tingled with anxiety. I rushed to help her up. "Ma'am, please get up. We haven't even figured out what happened..."

"We know exactly what happened!" Kevin grabbed my arm, his grip like iron. "I saw it with my own eyes! It was your car that ran the red light and sent my dad flying twenty feet!"

The last traces of sleep vanished, replaced by a surge of anger. "I haven't driven that car all day! You can't just say I hit him and make it true!"

"Fifty thousand? Why not ask for five hundred thousand? This sounds more like a robbery to me!"

The words had barely left my mouth when his hand cracked across my face.

The force sent me stumbling back a step, a high-pitched ringing in my ear.

"Bullshit!" he screamed, jabbing a finger at my nose. "My father is dying!"

"If you don't pay up, I'm calling the cops and you'll go to jail! I'll make your life a living hell!"

Someone in the crowd egged him on. "Good! She deserved that! People like her need to be taught a lesson!"

The neighbors grew more agitated.

"Don't waste your breath on her, just call the police! Lock her up!"

His wife was sobbing hysterically on the floor, and their child started screaming. Camera flashes went off in my face, blinding me.

I clutched my stinging cheek and slowly straightened up. "Fine. Call the police."

Kevin froze.

"You heard me. You wanted to call them? Go ahead." I wiped a smear of blood from the corner of my mouth.

I turned, walked to my nightstand, and grabbed something. Then I walked back and slapped it against his chest.

"And while you're at it, let the police see how a colorblind woman who can't even drive managed to hit your father!"