Road Rage
What is it with people and their fury on the road?
Calm down people, take a deep breath, it is not the end of the world.
Gee-whiz I didn’t see the damn kombi. I was at a quirky roundabout (more like a T-junction with a roundabout) where you either take a slight bend and go straight ahead or turn left. Or if you feel like a swim, you could turn right and go over the guardrails and take a plunge to the river below.
It was between 4.30 -5pm and the sun was glaring right in my eyes. I stopped at the roundabout, squinted, stretched my neck up to avoid the glare and checked if it was safe to proceed. I thought the oncoming VW kombi was going straight ahead. I swear I did not see the indicator.
I started to proceed but screeched to a halt as the kombi, with a man (driver) and a woman (passenger) was manoeuvring the roundabout to turn to their right. When I halted they tooted the horn, gave me the middle finger while mouthing the F word (I am sure they didn’t just mouth, they must have screamed their lungs with that favourite word of the deranged). Thankfully with my windows up I only saw the mouthing of it and irate faces glaring at me.
So much anger and hatred for such a simple mistake!
It may be illegal to swear in public, at work, yep even by the boss and police can arrest if you use the F word on them, yet the word just fall off the mouth of drivers as if the tongue is a slippery slope.
At that moment, my thought was “what is the big deal?” “I stopped, didn’t I?” I could have understood (sort of) if it was at least a near collision, or at least my oversight made them veer. It was neither.
I have no explanation for my reaction next, except to say something about their incensed faces screaming blue murder, tickled my funny bone and I burst out laughing with my arm outstretched in a gesture that says ‘look at those faces’.
With my (strange) reaction, the irate looks vanished in a flash, replaced by surprised, quizzical looks while slowly moving out of my sight.
It was a film worthy moment within many moments. It truly was.
I kept looking at the back of the moving van while still laughing and saw the woman passenger peering from the side mirror with the bewildered look still about her.
Perhaps they thought I escaped from the loony house, I don’t know and don’t care.
I found a new way to counter road rage.
Laughter!
It gives an air of total disorientation to the hotheads.
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