I get in my car and adjust the
seat and the rear view mirror. I start
the car, buckle in, and back out onto the lane that runs for a quarter mile out
onto the highway. I come to a complete stop and look both ways onto the five
lane highway, two lanes going north, two going south and a middle lane for
turning across traffic.
Far, far to my left I spot
traffic zooming toward me, to my right one lone, apple green truck is heading
my way. Since I am turning left, I zip
out onto the highway and land on the middle lane as if it was third base and I
am considering stealing home. I check both mirrors and decide the green truck
is far behind me and on the outside lane. I can ease out into the inside lane
and we should both be fine. As soon as I venture out, he speeds up and honks at
me with such anger I startle and grip the steering wheel.
He passes me, obviously doing
more than the 60 mph speed limit. I follow
behind, hoping he gets a speeding ticket.
He never slows down, not even when the speed limit drops to fifty.
I tootle to a stop at the red
light, right behind the Green Truck. All
that fuss and we both got to the light at the same time. All I can see of him is a skinny blonde head
with a short buzz cut. The light turns and we both get onto the expressway. Now
that he can pick up speed to seventy five, he does fifty. I turn on my blinkers
and shoot out to the left lane. Suddenly
he zips in front of me and blocks my path, once again doing under the speed
limit. The traffic on our right is going
faster than we are, so I zip back and so does he.
He is taunting me on purpose and
I don’t want to play his game. I ease up on the gas and follow him. He soon gets tired of me and zooms away, creating
several car lengths between us. Maybe he will leave me alone now.
As my exit approaches, I start my
blinker and the truck slows down and overshoots the exit and jumps over the curb
to get off with me. He slows down as we approach the green light, but as soon
as it turns yellow he flies through and I sit at the red. Good, maybe now it
will create some distance between us and I can finally rid of this road bully.
The bright Green Truck is half a
block ahead of me as the light changes and I follow for a while, but I turn
into the post office to leave some mail at the drive through mail box. By the time I get back onto the street there
is no sign of the Apple Green truck.
I wonder why he was in such a
hurry. Was he late for work? A hospital emergency? Maybe he was just living out
some Fast and Furious fantasy? Maybe harassing gray-haired old women makes him feel more macho? Was he offended that a family sedan dared to show up his cool,
souped up, late model truck?
I reach the grocery store, find a
nice parking space near the entrance, and turn off the ignition. I reach for my
recyclable tote bags and check my hair in the rear view mirror. As I open the
car door, I hear a familiar rumble. An apple green truck sputters to a stop in
the next row of cars across from me. Out
jumps a skinny, young man with a buzz cut.
How did we end up at the grocery
store at the same time after I made a pit stop at the post office and he was
tearing up the streets? I followed all the traffic rules and the speed limits,
and I know he didn’t.
He is too busy reading a list of
some sort in his hand and does not recognize me without my car as we both walk
into the store together. He grumbles
about something on his list. That is
when I notice it is a traffic ticket.
I give him a sweet grandmotherly
smile as I pull a cart from its queue and race around him and into the store to
do my weekly shopping. I leave him in my smoke.
You go Rachel!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Lea.
ReplyDelete