Road rage

When the Stranger Is Screaming at You and He Might Have a Gun

I don’t feel very free anymore

As it turned out, this space was not available for me, but it took me a minute to read the words from inside my car. (Photo by Michelle Teheux)

Out of nowhere, a big guy was screaming at me.

“I’m going to beat your ass!” He said it several times, and he said it so loudly that I could hear him clearly through my closed car windows.

“What?” I had no idea why he thought my ass needed a good beating, but I was willing to hear him out. I hadn’t even gotten out of my car. I hadn’t even pulled into a parking spot.

I was still trying to make out the wording on a sign to see whether I could park in a certain spot.

I just needed to drop something off.

The medical complex has a huge parking lot, and because I was only going to quickly run in and out, I hoped they’d have one of those 15-minute parking spots set aside.

I had seen a sign that I thought might be one of those, but it was hard to read. Somebody had decided it would make sense to fit a whole bunch of words onto a very small sign. In a medical center. Where lots of people old enough to have iffy long-distance vision would park. OK.

My car wasn’t moving. I was merely sitting there, my head turned toward the sign, my eyes squinting hard. No car…