Friday, May 29, 2015

En Route



            Bridges always made Kevin squeeze the handle above the car door.  Every imperfection in the suspended black pavement made his heart skip several beats and his intestines fickle at best. With his free hand Kevin constantly tugged the touch display of his phone down, watching the wheel spin, updating the traffic report. Any longer on this stretch of woven metal death and he would have to be sick. His breakfast was meager, but enough to warrant the air sickness bag in his briefcase.
            The other men in his carpool were talkative after their twenty ounces of liquid caffeine.
            “Did you see last night’s episode of that new sitcom?”
            “Do your kids have any sports games this weekend?”
            “Happy hour?”
            For the most part the other four men occupying the car were harmless. They couldn’t strike fear into the heart of a traumatized toddler and yet their inattentiveness and aloofness about the bridge below made Kevin hate them in those eight to fifteen minutes as they crossed from New Jersey into New York.
            This time, as they passed into the lower level of the George Washington Bridge Kevin watched as the traffic crawled to a standstill. In a whirlwind of internal panic he swiped his phone downward to reload the traffic report. His face went white as whatever air he had seeped from his lungs.
            His phone read: Three car accident of the GW this morning. One lane traffic. Expect forty-five to ninety minute delays for eastbound traffic.

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