The time I almost parked on a cat

It was a typical New England autumn day, with the sun shining fiercely through flame-coloured trees.  I was in the middle of my sixth driving lesson, this time supervised by Anita.  She was about my height, slim, with a great cloud of sable black hair.  She spoke with a slight rasp in her throat, a consequence of the requisite cigarette hastily smoked before the start of each lesson.  She dished out countless anecdotes of other drivers and past jobs, abruptly interrupting herself every now and then to issue commands to turn or stop or perform a maneuver.  This time she wanted me to parallel park next to the curb in a residential area, and I was easing into the space when she barked "Stop!" and simultaneously stomped on the brake.

I thought I had done everything right.  The past few lessons I felt that I had nailed parallel parking and could conquer the world, proving all naysayers that the phrase "good Asian female driver" was not an oxymoron.  I quivered slightly and arranged my eyebrows into a question mark.  "There's a cat in your blind spot," she said, and pointed to my blind spot, where of course I was not able to see anything.  I strained against my seat belt to lean across to the curb; sure enough a cat was there, stopping to sit down.  If it hadn't moved I wouldn't have recognized it so easily.  Its dappled grey and black coloring helped it to blend in with the road and sidewalk, which bore shadows of tree branches.  Its yellow eyes bored into mind, as if to say, "Oh--you were going to park? Here? Well I don't think that's going to happen. Yeah, that's right, what are you going to do now?"

"Ha! Go! Shoo! Git!" Anita attempted to get the cat to move away, but instead it got to its paws and started to walk closer to the car.  She reached over and lightly tapped the horn and still the cat crept away from the curb, then sat down again and maintained its expectant stare.  We couldn't stay there and play Chicken with it, as I still had to drive big, wonky circles around the town, so Anita had me put the car back in Drive and find another place to parallel park.