Shek's Footprint

On my quiet ride back home, a Dodge Ram truck was behind me. We were stuck in evening traffic and the lady in the Dodge honked. I looked back to see a middle aged Caucasian woman with a cigarette sticking out of her mouth getting fidgety. Who wouldn’t be if they were slowed down for three seconds by a misguided cyclist?

I have managed to let go of minor things like a honk here and an undecipherable shout there but I was not really prepared for what was aimed  at me this time. The traffic proceeded and a right turning lane appeared. She vroomed into it, rolled her window down and cowardly flicked her cigarette at me. It missed me by a few feet. I had an impulse of disgust which I quickly quietened down to concentrate on the left turn coming up ahead. No bird was flipped by either party. I rode back home keeping the recent incident in mind. The slow cycling with a combination of cold breeze and warm sun kept my temperament rational.

Not knowing what to think, I decided to take a long walk. In the first ten minutes of walking with Laya, the matter seemed to get clearer. What Dodge-Woman had really done was throw the most harmless part of the cancer stick at me: the stub. The addictive nicotine was already in her blood and the cancerous smoke was already in her lungs. Dodge-Woman had vicariously suffered my punishment.

In your face!

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 28th, 2008 at 6:48 pm and is filed under Commuting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.