Beside Serenity

B

I sat in my mom's brand new Honda minivan, stuck in this long row of traffic. And like everyone else in line, I was eager to pass. My sister, mother and I had just come from the grocery store, where I was allowed to choose a flavor of ice cream to eat as dessert for the week. If we stayed in the car too long, it would melt, and my dessert would be no more than a milky mess in the car's trunk.

"Why's the traffic so bad?" I asked my mother, sitting up and attempting to peer over the dashboard at the brake lights on the car before us. I barely saw the back windshield, I was so short.

"I don't know, David." She turned the radio's volume up.

"Is something happening today?" I asked, louder.

"I don't think so, David," Through the rearview mirror, she and I made quick eye contact. When she looked away, and suspected I had too, she rolled her eyes. I watched her through the mirror.

An awkward amount of minutes passed in which the only noise was the radio accompanied by the singing of my sister. These minutes ended when the sound of distant sirens grew to a disturbing roar. I whipped my head in the direction of the noise and noticed approaching blue and red flashing lights.

"Uh oh," I said, looking at the rearview mirror. My mother focused on pulling the car off to the side of the road in response to the incoming emergency vehicles.

"Why is there police?" My sister fell out of the trance the radio had her in. The sudden strobes of light made her giggle, and forget the question that nobody was answering. She began singing again.

"Why can't we just go behind them and skip all the traffic?" I said, thinking out loud. My mother spun around to face me.

"Because, David," She snapped, "That would be illegal." Every syllable in 'illegal' was dragged out, supposedly so I would understand. I didn't, but still, I stayed silent and looked out the window at the large field across the street.