Approaching his car Radix noticed a tiny pool of what looked like…what was
most certainly…green engine coolant fluid near the front tires. Panic with tiny
fingers gripped his heart. He bent down to inspect the fluid. How could he
be sure it came from his car?
He got in and turned the ignition. The car started after the third try but the
engine shuddered and rattled ominously. At the second traffic light, with the
interior warming up and everything else sounding normal, his anxiety faded. He
drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and looked out at a city heading
home under grey skies.
On the overpass he looked down and saw four lanes of traffic jammed up on
the highway, stretching for miles, crawling forward. He'd have to go down there;
he'd have to ease his way into that crawl. There were alternative routes but he'd
never taken the time to explore them, knowing only one road home; hating
roadways, the time-consuming need to travel on them; drivers who showed no
concern for human limb and life.
At the access road to the highway other drivers were having second thoughts.
One fellow, already half way down, threw his car in reverse and came barelling
back, the driver's head craned round, he didn't give a fuck what anyone thought
as long as you got out his way.
Radix decided to stick to the local roadway. It ran parallel to the highway
until the highway went up and above ground and ran for a mile or so on concrete
reinforcements, offering the convenience of not having to pass through local
communities.
But the roadway, an uneven strip, its lanes not clearly marked, soon backed
up; traffic lights at intersections up ahead kept changing, from red to green
then back to red for long minutes. Yet nothing moved. He began to regret not
taking the highway which he could see above him, cars moving slowly, but
moving; there was flow up there, and order; no bumper poking and jostling for
space. The cars up there seemed… and before he could finish that thought his
car struck the rear end of the vehicle in front.
(from "Ah, Mikhail, O Fidel!" a novel by N.D.Williams, 2001)
FARJOURNEY CARIBBEAN 