The Mechanic
From Planet 246
Autofiction by Durre Shahwar
The mechanic who comes to replace the bulb in the right headlight of my car asks me if I know how to open a bonnet. I am unsure if he asks this as a joke and wait for him to laugh or break into a smile and when he doesn’t, I nod and open the bonnet. He calls me a good girl and cheers. I say nothing. My friend Sophia and I were leaving the local community centre when I had remembered that the right headlight of my car had stopped working a few days ago. I hadn’t had a chance to get it fixed. She had suggested that we go to the garage around the corner and ask them to fix it. It is December and it is hard enough to see in the lifeless grey sky in the day let alone in the oppressively dark winter night.
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Durre Shahwar is a writer, researcher, and a Future Wales Fellowship artist (a collaboration between Arts Council Wales and Natural Resources Wales). She is currently doing her PhD at Cardiff University while writing her debut book.
