Stuck In Traffic

He was obviously late again.

Try as he did, he couldn’t quite get through the yellow light in time. Some incompetent, pain-in-his-ass new driver had sped up and then slowed down at the last minute; afraid to take the risk of crossing.

Obviously he had to be the unfortunate sucker to be stuck behind said new driver. Probably some punk kid who hadn’t grown into his own skin yet. ‘Another thing holding him back’ he internally groaned as he tapped his hairy fingers against the steering wheel.

Another red fucking light.

He shifted his weight from one butt cheek to the other as he sat there uncomfortably with a long day’s work musk drenching his too-tight suit.

The poor suit jacket button teared incredibly slowly at the seams along with his weary muscles. His business suit was out of fashion, out of colour, and way overdue to be laid to rest. At this point, it felt as if the outfit came out of a printer that ran out of ink. Darker around the pits and middle of the back, the threading was starting to show like uneven grass. At least the outfit matched the 5 o’clock shadow growing in on the man’s sunken face.

Everything about his appearance screamed “why bother”.

And really, why did he bother? Every day was the same as the last. The same deep sigh when rising from his bed, the same flavourless mushy raisin bran for breakfast, the same radio chatter nonsense on the way to work. His life had become one grey monotone nuisance, yet he did nothing to change it.

Complacency.

He got too easily settled into the mundane life to the point where he lost all sense of purpose. He knew why he went to the office everyday for over ten gruelling hours. It was to support his family, obviously. Right?

Or maybe he worked long hours to get away from his two snotty teenagers that he had long ago lost connection with. Modern teenage-hood was a mystery to him, and he found it more effective to Snapchat his daughter down for dinner then to just knock on her bedroom door. And his son, heard nothing but his video games blaring through his overly expensive headphones. He couldn’t understand how his son could waste hours upon hours in front of the computer screen. Then again, he had been doing the exact same thing just at work, no? At least he was making an income.

Like previously mentioned, it was easier not to bother.

In terms of his wife, he wasn’t sure if she felt the same or not. But again, he never asked. He knew that avoidance wasn’t the smarter path, but he had lost the will to care. It was if he could see life and all the people in it just pass him by. He cruised by on autopilot and couldn’t seem to stop.

He no longer minded that he was grey-scale invisible.

~

Leaving the nearby bus stop, the local route bus driver struggled to breathe suddenly. Nausea threatened its way up his throat as if signalling the oncoming storm of events. He clutched at his chest as if to try and grasp at the stars clouding his vision. But it was beyond hopeless, his heart had already started out on the route and was not heading back; just like the bus itself.

Mere seconds had passed when the bus driver lost complete consciousness with his foot weighing heavily on the gas pedal. Dead weight.

Barely a minute later, regardless of the passengers’ shrieking, was when the bus full-on collided with the lost-in-thought man’s vehicle. Everything became a kaleidoscope of crumpled colour and sound.

And then, the awaited moment finally happened.

Green light.