Читать книгу Hell's Roundabout - Benjamin Vance - Страница 3

Have you ever pulled up to a stop light or stop sign, looked both ways to make sure no cars were coming, then cautiously pulled out, only to be on the receiving end of horn blaring road rage from another swerving, cursing driver? How does that ever happen?

In a more benign vein, have you ever been in a similar situation and looked back to your right or left and been unable to see a car that you’re absolutely, 100% positive was there just a second before? It happens to us all, but have you ever really … really considered why?

Certain things continually distract us and distort our perceptions, but we have our bad days and our good days and even on our good days, bad things may still happen. For instance, you look up the road for a clear half-mile in both directions knowing there are no other intersections either way, and then you pull safely into your highway lane, and look in the mirror again just to be safe. You see the clear road to your rear, then for some unknown reason the hair stands up on the back of your neck and you glance at the rear view mirror a second time to see a car or truck barreling up behind you … well, then you know something is truly amiss. You don’t tell anyone except perhaps your spouse or rider, but even he or she wasn’t paying attention and will probably think you’re crazy if you say, “That damned vehicle behind me came right out of nowhere.” Yeah, right, where have we heard that before?

In the future, perhaps you should give yourself the benefit of a doubt, keep quiet and check that vehicle for dents and scratches and even burned places when it invariably screams past you, hopefully on the left. Maybe it did come out of nowhere or at least somewhere or sometime else. Maybe it’s damned as well, so pay attention.

Get a close look at the driver’s face if you can, and see if any of the flesh is burned or rotting. See if it has lidless eyes and a lipless grin on its face and as it passes, roll your window down to smell for sulphur, ozone ... or decay. If any of these things occur, don’t think you‘re losing your mind; just appreciate that the poor thing recently escaped from Hell’s Roundabout and is pleased to have finally escaped that infinite, damned circle of death.