Formerly (901 hits)
Category: Quotes & StoriesRating: 1.2 on 6 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Brandon Fabish <brandino_the_great.at.yahoo.com> (View user info) at 2003-06-24 00:37:36 EDT
He is on his way to work like every day, except Sunday, for the past 209 weeks. He has lived in the same house for 4 ½ years. He has driven the same vehicle for almost 8 years. Life is such a bore. This is farther down in life. When he has graduated from college. On the radio this morning, the news helicopter forgot to mention not to take the interstate to work. The same route he has taken to work every day. They forgot to say that there was going to be bumper-to-bumper traffic at 7:24 a.m. due to an accident, if that's what you'd call it.
He's tuned in to some channel, the same channel as always, to listen to the closest thing as 'up to date' can be. In reality what he is hearing is about 3 minutes late, but from where he is in traffic right now, it doesn't matter. From what he's heard, a semi carrying a load of wood, the kind they use for telephone poles, flipped on its side. They say that the lumber skidded across all four lanes of the road, toppling a truck pulling a trailer full of cows. When the trailer hit the road the back end where the door would be, that split open and cows were everywhere. A lot of them weren't alive, but they were still cows nonetheless.
So that's what he's heard. That's what caused the fourteen-car pile-up. He looks at the clock on his car and notices it says that he's got 30 minutes until work. He glances out ahead and witnesses smoke barreling up from the ground. Fourteen cars, he thinks, that seems about right for the amount of fire spewing from the ground. What a mess, he thinks.
It's at about this time he wonders how many people were in those fourteen vehicles involved, and also, how many of them he would be seeing in at work today. Not because he works with them. His beeper goes off and he looks at the number. Of course he already knew what it was about, but he goes ahead and looks at the message, which is flashing "Urgent" and glances to see the call back number.
All of this was to be expected, but he can't do anything about it now. He picks up his cell phone and dials the number. He doesn't want to talk long, because there isn't anything worth talking about. He hears a chopper flying overhead, and the person on the other end says that when it lands, he needs to get in. He shouldn't worry about his car; it will be taken care of.
From the view of the helicopter he can see everything. The wreck, the pile and debris of cars, trucks, semi, the smoke rising from the scene where fire is still fuming from vehicles, he can see it all. The huge line of traffic, with the incessant honking that is useless to do but is done just because they are too stupid to realize it isn't solving the situation. It's only causing more chaos. Maybe it makes them feel good, he doesn't know.
It's still 20 minutes before he has to be in at work, and already he's about to lose it. Already he can feel everything boiling inside of him. This isn't going to be one of those "Hulk angry, Hulk smash," type of outbursts. No, those are so unfulfilling anymore. This is a lot worse.
In the horizon are more helicopters ready to airlift all of those people involved in the accident to the hospital. He's betting ¼ of the people don't even need medical attention, but they'll ask for it anyways, just to be careful. They are always thinking "better to be safe than sorry." It's better to be dead than to be either the latter or the former. At least then you wouldn't be shelling out hundreds of dollars for a doctor to tell you that you're okay. Everything is intact, and seems to be working normally.
With the beginning of his problems behind him he doesn't even think about the ones that lie ahead of him. That's the key of it all, not to think about previous or future problems. He's realized he cannot put so much stress on himself by doing so. Last time, he's not even remembering last time, because the minute he were to think of last time, it would occur, only this time it would be far much worse. His outburst, that is.
Those anger classes that try to teach you to take deep breaths, those only prolong the situation. In actuality, when the last straw is drawn, it makes your actions worse. The meetings that tell you to count to ten mentally, that's basically the same as deep breaths. Sometimes it's worse because during the time you're counting, the anger builds instead of subdues, and things become a lot more hectic.
A lot of it is caused by stress. It's caused by the random annoyances found in everyday life that never bothered him until a while ago. Every day life never got to him because he had lived with it for so long. The background noise, the cars, the construction, the yelling, he just became accustomed to it all. But sometimes you just can take it anymore. When things just get so bad, you have to let it out. He used to call it venting. It's gone far beyond that.
User Reviews
Submitted by Zeccs (user info) at 2004-03-18 22:27:29 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
The only thing i've liked on here all day.
Submitted by I_Have_a_Kristen_Fetish (user info) at 2004-03-18 21:59:24 EST (#)
Ranking: -2
No Comment
Submitted by antluvdog (user info) at 2003-06-24 08:06:44 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Well written.
Submitted by dasteve (user info) at 2003-06-24 06:37:30 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by HeavensWalls (user info) at 2003-06-24 00:48:52 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Fabish (user info) at 2003-06-24 00:38:46 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
-part 2-
-part 1- http://www.ubersite.com/cgi-bin/message_get.cgi?message=105632899539908305