Split Second

It was about 1:00 in the afternoon, three hours earlier than she usually drove home from school.

As she approached the same left turn she completes every day, she noticed that the road looked a little different.  The flow of the moving cars was off.  Nobody was really heading east on the main drag.  There were big gaps between the cars instead of the bumper to bumper line of bright headlights as if strung together for lights on a Christmas tree.  Maybe making the turn would actually be easier today.

She slowly came to a stop and looked to her left, then to her right, before looking back to her left.  The right side had one oncoming station wagon that was close with no one behind it in sight, so she decided to wait for it to pass by, then quickly checked her left again to determine if there was enough time to pull ahead of the approaching white pickup truck.  Yes, she decided there was.

She went for it, quickly pulling out and heading east.  An angry horn sounded “HOOOOOONNNNNKKKK” and she was confused, her heart sinking to her stomach while thumping a few beats faster.  The white pickup truck was still approaching with plenty of room.  Maybe she forgot to check one more time on her right, to see if another car somehow made its way into the traveling lane?  She took a quick look in her rearview mirror to try to make sense of the piercing noise and get her bearings.  A Ford Escape was right on her tail, continuing to bark loudly, changing its tune to intermittent honking.

To the driver of Ford Escape, she’s sorry if she caused any distress and relieved that the only casualty was minor discomfort in the ear sockets from the belligerent horn making itself known.

All it took was a split second and the landscape of the eastbound lane was forever changed.  She missed her late afternoon crowd of travelers.  They always stopped for her to pull out, knowing how challenging it can be to make a left hand turn during a busy time.

Tomorrow’s a new day.  She should be back on her usual schedule.