My Secret of Driving Backwards.
I first discovered my desire for driving backwards while driving the tractor on my family’s farm.
When I saw someone driving a car backwards on a public road I was shocked.
There were other people just like me.
People who feel like me.

I decided to tell my parents about my secret.
They were not happy.
They told me it was illegal to drive backwards.
So I became politically active.
Our numbers grew and finally we got the law changed.
Society also changed their attitude.
We were no longer told we were wrong.
It was no longer a sin.

Even some religious people and their leaders accepted us.
What a weak response they had.
They knew their Book forbids driving backwards.
So they just ignored what was in their Book.
If their God is real why is he so relaxed about our behaviour?
It seemed like everyone was okay with what we do.
We started to influence young drivers to consider driving backwards.
The media gave us a lot of attention because we were interesting.
We seemed to be everywhere.

But the conservatives opposed us all the way.
They said it was, “not natural to drive backwards”.
They said,” cars were designed to be driven forwards”.
They said there was a judgement day.
We did not care.
We all agreed we could do anything we wanted.
When we wanted and how we wanted.
Our argument was, “We love to drive backwards”.
How can something you love be wrong?
If you love it…it must be okay.

The conservatives said there will be more accidents.
But we replied, “We will drive carefully”.
If we respect their right to drive forwards, shouldn’t they respect our right to drive backwards?
Now the car makers were making cars that could go either way.
What a victory we were enjoying.
Everyone was congratulating us for standing up for our rights.

In the middle of this wonderful atmosphere, I decided to check the facts about car design.
I looked up the history of cars and found a man called Henry Ford.
He was credited with being the father of the modern car.
I discovered that all cars were originally designed to be driven forwards.
This made me think about the negative results of driving backwards.
First of all it takes a lot of effort.
I did have a sore neck and back.
It was hard to drive that way after the initial thrill wore off.

One day Mr Ford visited me in a dream and told me to repent before I wasted my life going the wrong way.
Here is what he said, “Some people don’t like… the number 13.
When they build high rise buildings they call the thirteenth floor number 14.
But that does not change which floor is really the thirteenth floor.
It just changes the name.”

When I woke up I realised Mr Ford was giving me a message.
No matter how hard you try… you cannot make driving backwards normal even if you call it normal.
Changing the law does not make an unnatural lifestyle…natural.

You cannot argue against the original design.
Driving backward will always be abnormal.
I do not want to admit it, but even though I like driving backwards.

I knew in my heart of hearts that something was wrong.
But I had built my house of cards and I was not going to repent.

In the end I decided that I could live a lie… as long as everyone around me supported that lie.

The truth is very unpopular at the moment.
Even some of the religious folk have turned away from their Book.
And voted for a lie.

Written by Number 13.