I killed some guy today
"I killed some guy today. I was driving home from work and he was on a bicycle up ahead. Sure, I saw him but I'm not gonna change speed or move over for some jerk on a bike. I laid on the horn to scare that asshole but I got a little too close and hit his arm with my mirror. He went flying ass over tin cups! Then his head hit the curb. I pulled over, but it was too late. His neck was broken. It wasn't funny anymore. I killed some guy today.
"My dad killed somebody on the road yesterday. He hit a guy on a bike and the guy died! Dad always bitches about bicyclists, slow drivers, and those fuckin' Amish buggies. They don't belong on the road, he says. But he killed some guy! Dude! He's a bad ass! Hey, Marsha, what's wrong? Dude, she just got up and ran out of class all cryin' and stuff."
"A boy in my trig class started talking about how his dad killed a bicyclist yesterday. He was my best friend's father! I was so shocked I ran across the hall to the girls restroom and threw up. I'll be okay in a minute. What am I gonna tell Andrea?"
"My friend Marsha called last night. She's in a class with the boy whose father killed Daddy. I don't know how to process that right now. I'm numb. Mom and I take turns breaking down and crying. We try to comfort each other. We try to be strong for each other, but the tears just well up in us. My heart truly aches. I always thought that was just an expression, but it's true. It aches. What are we gonna do? My Daddy died."
...
"My dad killed somebody on the road yesterday. He hit a guy on a bike and the guy died! Dad always bitches about bicyclists, slow drivers, and those fuckin' Amish buggies. They don't belong on the road, he says. But he killed some guy! Dude! He's a bad ass! Hey, Marsha, what's wrong? Dude, she just got up and ran out of class all cryin' and stuff."
...
"A boy in my trig class started talking about how his dad killed a bicyclist yesterday. He was my best friend's father! I was so shocked I ran across the hall to the girls restroom and threw up. I'll be okay in a minute. What am I gonna tell Andrea?"
...
"My friend Marsha called last night. She's in a class with the boy whose father killed Daddy. I don't know how to process that right now. I'm numb. Mom and I take turns breaking down and crying. We try to comfort each other. We try to be strong for each other, but the tears just well up in us. My heart truly aches. I always thought that was just an expression, but it's true. It aches. What are we gonna do? My Daddy died."
Labels: fiction
posted by Ed W at 4:41 PM
6 Comments:
I prefer snarky CycleDog to CycleDog fiction...
Wally has been lurking around in the corners of my consciousness. What does that say for my state of mind when I almost think of him as a real person? Wally does snark really well!
The idea for this one started on my way home. I wanted to do something entirely in dialog, switching from one person to the next. Since I'd already worked out the flow of it, the actual writing went, well, flowingly. I'm thrilled with pieces that almost write themselves. It's addictive, and it keeps me writing, hoping for another moment like it.
Last week at my son's high school a 17 year old driver swerved to avoid hitting a car and instead hit four of his classmates who were walking across the crosswalk, sending two of them to the hospital. But it's just an accident.
We get "human factor" training as part of the company injury prevention program. The FAA is kinda big on it too. The premise is that there's a chain of events leading up to an incident, and that if we break any single link in that chain, we prevent the incident. I've started writing on that theme over on the Examiner - a serious kind of thing rather than the lighter stuff I put over here. I told Dan Gutierrez that I'd do a series on it, and include his 'layers' concepts.
I have people cut me off and swerve over, sometimes pushing me clear off the road. I wonder how they would feel if their actions ended up killing me or someone else. Not funny any more for sure...
This should be required reading for everyone in driver's ed, and for everyone who's got a license now. Very poignant and attention grabbing.
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