I would enter Brown Street, while anxiously changing the radio: A-ha, Michael Jackson, ABBA... it was a musical loop. Just then as I stopped at the traffic light a translucent car appeared next to mine. What's worse, no one seemed to be driving it.
As best as I could, I got back in my seat. Because of the fright, I hadn't realized that the radio hand was turning by itself, and it only stopped when a strange song played including many synthesizers.
The traffic light turned green and the other car left a vaporwave that encouraged me to go after it. When I drove away from home that summer night, I never thought I would end up in a street race. But a Ferrari wasn't made to lose.
I was dodging cars all over the avenue as if it were a video game. I don't know what was wrong with me, but I wasn't afraid to die. Maybe I had never felt so alive.
My competitor turned onto Anchor Street and then sped down an alley at full speed. Another Bruce would have stopped everything there, but tonight was different and the unique sound of the Ferrari whispered "win, win" to me.
Without fear of scratching the body, I went 100 mph down the alley, but, probably halfway down the alley, I abruptly slammed on the brakes. The lights of the translucent car were pointed at mine. The engine of my courage seemed to have melted because I couldn't move a finger.
This stillness disappeared only when a strange music began to play out of nowhere on the radio and my competitor turned and drove off through a hole that appeared at the end of the alley.
I don't remember which gear I went into, but I do know that I went through that hole in an instant as my mind became more and more clouded. I thought it was the end. I was wrong, it was just beginning.
Only a few seconds after what I thought was the end, I glimpsed the city of Miami again. But everything was artificial. The bars were full, but of robots; the palm trees looked like neon street lights and the sea shone in shades of blue without moving or making any sound.
Confused and amazed as I was, I still said to myself that whatever this was, there was one place in the city that would remain untouched.
Third, fourth, fifth gear! My F40 couldn't catch up with the urgency that coursed through my veins to find my home intact. Yes, I had escaped as a rebel, but now I wanted to return as a child who wanted to be comforted.
A couple more turns to the left and I would be looking at the front of my house:
"Home, sweet home!" boomed a voice inside my car.
I could do nothing except slam on the brakes instantly.
Such braking did not let me see if I had indeed arrived home or not. When I opened my eyes, I was instead confronted with a dock. There was no more brick house with a rose garden like it used to be. There was no mom and dad. There was just that: a dock surrounded by the artificial sea I saw before.
As if by magic, my translucent competitor appeared right in front of me.
Then, already believing I had lost everything, I was not afraid to get out of the car and look for the wretch who was driving the other one to take him off the wheel and demand answers.
Perhaps he guessed my intentions, and before I was less than 5 meters away, the driver's door opened upwards.
Out of it came a tall, thin man with a slightly unkempt appearance, scar on his face, and what looked like a robotic eye.
"Welcome to Miami 2059. I'm sure you have a lot of questions, but the only answer you need is that a race is about to start and if you don't come in first, your ill-mannered father's F40 will be mine."
"What does this weirdo know about my dad?" I wondered.
In any case, it was ironic to me that in the most confusing situation of my entire life, that's when I was acting most intuitively.
Thus perplexed by so much in so little time, I didn't stop to think if it would be a good idea to follow this madman. I didn't know which was going faster: the Ferrari or my heart.
After crossing empty streets and observing the reflection of the car in the crystalline bases of infinite skyscrapers, we arrived at a wide avenue. Or should I say, I arrived. The translucent had disappeared at the last curve and I was facing a kind of floating ringed traffic light.
The intense red light of the traffic light was reflected in turn by another car. A purple Buick. I wanted to detail it, but was soon exalted by the roar of familiar engines. They were a BMW E30 and an Audi Quattro.
The noise of the cars only came to silence when the ringed traffic light stopped turning, emitting an intense green light that soon covered my sight and that of thousands of spectators coming out of nowhere on both sides of the highway.
The traffic light went out and at that instant, I knew I had to let the red horse gallop into the plains of modernity.
For the first 5 km we were neck and neck. It was a straight line that seemed endless, but it ended in a violent z-shaped chicane. My surprise was as big as the blow I received from the Audi on the right side.
I thought I was going to overturn. Luckily, the F40 didn't seem to like the idea of being left behind. I quickly got back on the road and rejoined the group.
The guy driving the Buick had a slight advantage. His driving skills were superior. I could tell by the way he kept the other two at bay between straights and curves.
From one moment to the next, my jaw dropped as I watched in slow motion as the BMW and Audi flew through the air. From my perspective, I thought I saw how the Buick braked to generate that, but then I realized it was the work of the translucent one.
Both cars seemed to disintegrate into letters and numbers upon impact with the roof of a tunnel of neon lights we were driving through.
As we exited the tunnel, there were thousands of excited people. They seemed to know what had happened.
In the midst of the hubbub, I could barely rejoin to see the translucent one come into full view: it was a Porsche 959.
In a matter of seconds, this Porsche overtook the Buick to enter a multi-level circle distributor. The view was simply spectacular. The sea, the skyscrapers, neighborhoods with all kinds of tropical vegetation. Not to mention that all the synthesizer tunes in the world never stopped playing.
For a second, I didn't care about winning or losing. However, I was determined not to lose my father's car.
I got tired of being a spectator in last place, to go all out for the lead. I thought I was pushing the engine, but there was no point. I felt the race was over.
Almost at the exit of the distributor, I got alongside the Porsche, passing it slightly in the last skid.
I saw the robotic eye for the sale and all his indignation at being surpassed.
Just as he went for the other two earlier, he also came at me hitting the F40 so hard, the entire right side of the car was dented. In fact, even the rear wing was somewhat broken.
Just when I thought all was lost, the Buick hit one of the rear corners of the Porsche, causing it to drastically lose control.
My smile was gigantic as I saw that idiot had been left behind. Shining with joy, I decided to lower the passenger window to wave at the Buick. My surprise was even more gigantic when I saw that the driver of the car was my dad.
I went from smiling to tears in 2 seconds. It was really special when on the home stretch he let me win.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you. It was all so strange," my dad was telling me as we drove back down a "way of time".
"But are there really such diamonds inside the F40?" I asked Dad still in disbelief.
"Yes, son. I didn't want a Ferrari like that, but maybe they sold it to me by mistake, I don't know," he replied. "That guy we beat was a former Ferrari tycoon who wanted all the diamonds put into the F40's back because there are no diamonds in the future," my dad finished explaining when we got home.
"That's why these cars have always been worth so much," I muttered before hugging my dad as a final gesture of delight and gratitude.
