how it happens (fiction one)

he tried to breathe in and out in a slow and calming manner. the speed - or lack thereof - of the truck ahead of him was making that difficult however, as was the last few hours of his afternoon.

the brake lights on the orange truck ahead of him lit again, slowing the truck from the break neck speed of roughly 30 miles an hour to a painstaking crawl around the most gentle of turns the road could have possessed. not even a turn, he thought, more a suggestion of a curve.

his arm propped in the open window, he drummed his fingers against the hood of the car and again tried to instill himself with peace and calm and all that other zen bullshit. it wasn't working.

the road straightened again and he made a break for it, jabbing his foot against the old car's gas pedal forcefully and coaxing speed into the ancient steel bones of the tired thing. he whipped along side the orange truck, overcome for a moment with a feeling of good-naturedness enough to wave jauntily at the old man peering steadily over the wheel of his traffic-cone colored truck. the weathered face below the filthy truckers cap dipped slightly in recognition and he grinned and wished for his own filthy trucker cap as he slid a little over-zealously back into the proper lane.

the sudden rightward movement of his vehicle and the normal tendencies of gravity conspired to sling the little cardboard box on the passenger side of the bench seat leftward to thump against his thigh before toppling, spilling belongings he'd forgotten he owned into his lap and the floorboards of the car. he glanced down and the grin disappeared.

goddamn her, he thought for at least the fifth time that day. goddamn her for being so 'generous' and giving me back a bunch of useless crap just as i'd forgotten about her.

the t-shirt that now draped his leg had been a favorite at one time. now it was just a reason to picture her wearing it.

before he knew what he was doing his hand had reflectively grabbed the shirt and hurled it out the window. he watched it flutter for a moment before settling to the ground just in time to be caught under the tire of the orange truck now lagging further behind him.

his grin returned suddenly. so that's how it happens, he thought. i always wondered how those abandoned shoes and crap ended up in the middle of the road. must be something just like that.