Buzz

It was the story of a stunt car driver. A man called Buzz. Of course his name was Buzz, and he was as charming as he was dangerous.

His career had started when he was just a kid, maybe 15 years old. Most folks feared him at the time, especially adults. Some wild, unexplainable force within him made them avoid trying to parent him, moralize over him or otherwise have anything at all to do with the crazy little brat. He also held bad company. And one perfectly sunny day the gang of juvenile delinquents decided to rob a bank. Buzz drove the getaway car.

The robbery itself was a complete disaster. Their fast’n'furious escape made history, though. TV-channels followed Buzz by choppers, while people driving home from work u-turned and joined the chase along with the police. The highways turned into a chaotic mess. Back home, Buzz’s mother sat pale faced, holding her breath and wiping her tears, watching the stunning, Hollywoodlike car-chase imagery on her small TV-screen. Nothing had prepared her for this.

In a small but slick office somewhere in L.A., an agent stared at his big, wall-mounted TV, grinning. It was the kind of grin that holds promises of wealth, money and power. This man had a vision, and the vision was Buzz.

Immediately after finishing his six months sentence at a juvenile home, being bored out of his wits, Buzz was contacted by the L.A. agent. Contracts were signed, hands shook and golden career opportunities spawned - for both Buzz and the agent and his fellow big shots.

Buzz spent his first couple of years in Hollywood as a set worker. Sometimes he appeared in low budget movies, doing nothing significant. His agent bought him some impressive wheels on his sixteenth birthday, to ensure that his interest in cars and talent for driving kept evolving. It did. Buzz really loved cars. Getting Buzz a drivers licence wasn’t easy after the notorious car chase, but impossible? No. There are few things in this world that the red hands of a scrupleless lawyer can’t fix.

Around his 18th birthday, Buzz got his first serious work assignment in Hollywood. It was an action movie; budgets in the sky, high end actors, fast paced script. The car chase scenes and action sequences were going to blow people off their seats in the theatres. Buzz did nothing to disappoint neither the audience nor his agents, the producers, or the shady big guys who had put their money into the production. His driving was like nothing they had ever seen. He drove like he was possessed. He didn’t care about the details in the script, he just did his own thing and it was bigger than real. The camera crew driving alongside, behind and in front of Buzz were having tremendous difficulties following his crazy moves, but still, pretty extraordinary footage were recorded on tape. And that was an understatement.

Buzz’s career just went boom, he became stupendously rich in no time, married and separated from a dozen or so glamorous models and actresses, had five children and like the most natural thing, found his place right at the top along with the real big names. His mother, had she been alive, would’nt have believed what he had achieved, but then again she didn’t much put her faith in anything but Jack. She had died while Buzz were at the juvenile home.

Buzz was no longer just the best stunt driver in the world, he also starred in movies where he had the leading role. A mini-series were made, where the main character’s background was loosely based on his own life story. Buzz sparkled.

But of course, it didn’t last.

One day during a break at the set of his latest movie, Buzz fell asleep in the sleek, blue sportscar that he was using in one of the many action-packed scenes. But not while he was driving. No, he just sat there, engines off, contemplating. The set was a bridge, it was built entirely from scratch for the scene, and the car stood parked right under the foot of the bridge.

One of the set workers, a young, bored, blonde Hollywood wannabe, managed to slip inside the black, mean looking car that, in the movie, belonged to the bad guy. He desperately needed to take it for a spin. I guess you could say it was a bad career move.

Coming towards the foot of the bridge at an insane 118 mph, Blondie screamed as he spotted the parked, blue wonder. There was no way of avoiding the crash. He hit the brakes, but only a split second later he slammed into Buzz. Blondie got split in two by the safety belt His upper body went right through the window and hurled through the air. Buzz’s blue car got it’s entire back and right side peeled off - in fact the only things left after the massive impact were small parts of the roof, dashboard and windshield. Oh, and the driver’s seat. With Buzz, miraculously, still in it. Alive.

Buzz never got back into a car again. He never spoke of driving anymore. He left Hollywood, he left the U.S., and after a few months, disappeared. His agent tried to contact him a few times, but he really couldn’t care less of Buzz’s demise. He was too busy being rich, stuffed and repugnant.

At the age of 53, the agent got killed in an ugly car accident at a crossing. In the other victims car, the dead body of Buzz, the amazing stunt driver, was found.