A Simple but True Story

[sloth]

I was driving home from work. I lived an hour away, and I was halfway into the trip. I worked long hours, so the sun was just starting to set. I was on mental autopilot, and my mind began to go into a trance. A small dark blue piece of plastic smacked into my left windshield wiper, and stuck there. It was about an inch long, like a tiny frayed blue flag posted on my wiper, so it caught my eye. I fixated on it, entranced by how serene it was. It flapped and fluttered, and I watched it and I thought to myself, "I wonder where that came from..." A car in front of me shifted lanes, and then the car before him. Ahead of me, about seven car lengths away, an eighteen wheeler was now revealed. The truck was hauling a flatbed, and the cargo strapped to it was large, and squared off, and wrapped in dark blue plastic. "Hmm." I thought, in slow motion. "The little blue flag on my windshield wiper likely came from that cargo wrapping. That cargo's wrapping is getting shredded by the wind. Danger." I looked over each shoulder. There were at least two cars behind me, but nothing immediately to my left, so I slapped my left blinker. I waited a moment for those behind me to see my turn signal, and then I began to switch lanes... The truck was hauling plywood. I could tell, because at that moment the top sheet of plywood took flight, and flipped end over end. I could hear a whole lot of tire squealing, from multiple cars, but I didn't look back. I don't really know what happened back there. My mind was still in a sort of dreamy trance. I had not yet processed the event enough to think about other people. I was still kinda staring at my windshield wiper. I kept driving. And then I found a dollar.