Chuck gritted his teeth as he weaved his way through the rush hour traffic. He had finally gotten off work but now he was forced to make the hour commute home. Normally he didn't mind it too much because it gave him time to think. Today was different however.
It had been an especially bad day at work for Chuck and considering his profession, that was saying a lot. That is because Chuck spent his days working as a sign holder. Not the kind of sign holder that you see directing traffic. No, Chuck was a sign holder for Pete's Carpet Emporium. That meant that every day, Chuck made the hour commute to stand along side a busy road, holding a sign that read “Come check out Pete's Carpet!”
It wasn't a bad job really. Chuck enjoyed the time to think and to ponder the mysteries of the universe. It also wasn't a difficult job, as long as you didn't think about the hot sun. If it was an overcast day, however, the job could be peaceful. Since he had been working as s sign holder for the last few years, people had only thrown stuff at him about once a week. Chuck figured that it meant he was doing something right then.
A blare of a horn brought Chuck back from his day dreams and back to his current frustrations. Today was his birthday and he wanted nothing more than to be at home. He was also betting on the fact that his friends would be waiting for him to surprise him. The problem was that traffic was just horrible today. Spending your day watching traffic go by gave you a real appreciation of not being stuck it in, like he was now.
The traffic began to pick up and Chuck shouted in joy. It had to be a good sign, he figured. He pressed down on the accelerator and began to weave his way through traffic. Soon he was moving along at a better pace. He began to feel better about his day as he considered that he was at least done with work for the day.
Chuck would have made it back without incident, except for the elephant. He was driving in the far right lane, jamming to his mix tape of 80's rock. Then to his surprise, an elephant stepped out from behind a tree along the side of the road. The elephant turned his head slowly as Chuck laid on the horn but it was clear that the elephant had no plan of moving.
Chuck gripped the wheel hard and swerved to the left. He narrowly avoided the elephant but in his rush to avoid the large animal, he forgot to check to see if there was another car next to him. Chuck's small convertible would not have put up much of a fight if he had turned into someone but luckily for him he didn't crash into anyone. Instead of crashing into another vehicle, he found himself under a flatbed of a big eighteen wheeler semi.
He tried to maintain his speed as he frantically looked around, trying to decide what to do. He found out quickly that his situation had gotten much worse. On both sides of the semi were more cars and now he was trapped under the semi. It also appeared that the driver of the semi had not seen him pull under the trailer. He thought first of hitting his horn but he was afraid that the drive of the truck would slam on his breaks which would end in a very messy accident.
Sweat ran down Chuck's face as he frantically tried to think of a plan. In the end, nothing came to him. So he did the only thing he could think of. Chuck closed his eyes, trying to shut everything else out. He pictured his family and friends. All the arguments they had ever had suddenly seemed to silly and small. He thought about all the good times and how much he would miss them all.
Chuck took one last deep breath and turned the wheel, moving his car slowly out from under the semi. As he did, the rear bumper of his car collided with the front of a large pickup that was slightly behind him. Scared, he gunned the throttle, which caused the front of his car to spin around the front of the pickup. The car went flying into the median backwards. With his eyes still shut, he slammed on the breaks as his car crashed along the foliage in the median.
The car finally slowed then came to a complete stop. Chuck could hear the hiss of steam escaping the engine. He slowly opened his eyes and looked around. He tested his body, expecting to find something broken or out of place. He was relieved to see that everything was intact and that he was unharmed.
He climbed out of his car to survey the damage. It didn't take long for him to realize that the car would not be drive-able for a while. All of the tires were flat, his rear bumper was messed up pretty bad, and there was steam coming from under the hood.
Chuck sighed as he grabbed a small sign and a black marker from his back seat. He quickly jotted something down and said, “Guess I do have a little more work to do today.”
He moved out onto the side of the road and held up his sign, it read, “Car broke. Need a lift.” Than he began to twirl the sign and dance around in the median, pointing at himself and gesturing to his car. He even broke loose a flourish or two with the sign.
“Won't be long now,” he said to himself.
And so he stood, long into the night, twirling and whirling his sign. To think, if only he had held the sign still, someone might have been able to actually read it.
