The Blackest of days

The Blackest day

The sun was just at that right position making her partially blinded and it would seem that squinting was her only option at seeing anything this morning. The visors were not in any way helpful and the only comfort she could find was to use her own arm, holding it up in front of her face she approached the mob of traffic that was coming to a complete stop just ahead of her. Of course, traffic was horrendous today since the opening of the holiday shopping season had officially begun, Black Friday could be a shopping nightmare. She thought about the article she had recently read on the naming of Black Friday. It was originally deemed Black Friday by police officers in the city as they described how people had begun shopping the day after Thanksgiving and the stores and roads would become so crowded with the outer suburban shoppers. She was now stuck in the middle of stop-and-go traffic, which would usually be a recipe for frustration, but this morning she was on her way home after her overnight shift and she was still gleaming with the idea that she had been paid double time due to the Holiday. 

 She had not been shopping on Black Friday weekend in years, not since her mom wasn't around to go into the battle of the crowds with, mostly she just worked on holidays now, Holiday season was a time she could work some extra hours and double up on her savings. Last year because she worked during the holidays and put in a bit of overtime she was able to deposit a whole paycheck into pure savings. She had been saving for a couple of years now and her piggy bank was beginning to look pretty full. Of course, calling it her piggy bank was just a visual exercise for her inner child.  She had been putting money in an account so she could get her own place. She had decided years ago that renting was great but she wanted her own place. A place that wasn't connected to anyone else. So she started saving, every paycheck she had received over the last three years she had saved more than half if it was possible. She would pay what little bills that she had for her minimal living lifestyle and only spend on the necessities. She only ate out once or twice a month and that was mostly dollar menus, she bought generic everything, and mostly shopped at the dollar stores.  She collected and clipped coupons from one of the houses she worked in and utilized every ad she came across to save every penny she could.

She was big into organization and had been organizing everything around her all her life but  this was the biggest plan she had ever made. She wanted to save at least 20,000 for a good down payment on the house that would not be huge, but big enough to live comfortably and on occasion have a few friends over for a game night. It had been very hard to be disciplined enough to save while she watched her friends buying fun, and going to parks and movies and all she had for entertainment was the cheap phone that she had contracted herself into mostly for the savings, sacrificing the service she had grown so used to, it was nothing to write home about. Heck, she was lucky to have a good enough connection most days to even call home. Not that there was a home that she wanted to call. Her mother had passed some years ago in a sudden car accident, and she never really had a father who cared if she called home or not. 

Beep beep a loud horn blared in her ears, she had zoned out and the traffic behind her was anxiously wanting to move the 12 feet before they would again be forced to stop or yet continue at a very slow crawl. She yawned and rubbed her forehead, it had been a night. She loved the service and care she provided but she was starting to feel overwhelmed as the demand of the job changed. She hadn't been working for this company for long and had some sketchy encounters, but she wanted to stick it out and prevail. The job was beginning to wear her down. And she didn't like the way she was thinking, because when she went into a house with nerves racing she knew the clients must be able to feel her uncertainties. As the traffic slowly began to roll down the highway again, a little faster, the rhythm of the bumpy pods on the road as she ran over them gave her a feeling of peace and she began to bob her head and make music with the noises that surrounded her there in the privacy of her little blue car.  Again beep beep the sounds of the horns behind her blared in the air and she hit the gas, jerking her head back, she released an exhausted sigh and readjusted in her seat ready to move on down the road again. Every time she allowed her sister to take her car she moved the seat position, and it was often so similar to her perfect position she didn't notice until she had already placed her foot on the accelerator. She smiled a little thinking of ways she could torture that not-so-little girl when she saw her next. The radio played a familiar song and she began to hum along, yawning again. 

This traffic was crazy this morning and even though she wasn't in a hurry to get anywhere but into her soft fuzzy blanketed bed, she was beginning to become a little annoyed with the stop and go motions. As she scooted along the way she looked around at  the other drivers noticing many who were obviously on their way to somewhere important as their faces were looking angry and full of annoyance also.  She pulled her car a little more to the left hoping she could see what was happening ahead and she caught the lights flashing in the distance. It looked like half a dozen emergency vehicles, but she could not make out what was happening but concluded it must be a bad accident. She said a short prayer. “Lord if that was a car accident please let the people involved not be in pain.” as she said these words she thought about her mother and how fast they told her she went. She had been driving down the road minding her own business when a truck had crossed the center line and smashed right into her.She had been reassured that her mother had not felt any pain, and had gone quite peacefully. 

The closer she got to the flashing lights the more she could see and it looked like there were five cars involved, one of them was on its top, and she held her breath momentarily thinking about the ones who were possibly in the car when it flipped, it wasn't a big car and the top was almost smashed flat down to the window line of the car. She hoped and prayed that there were no fatalities and just as she was thinking this an announcement came over the radio for the weather and traffic update. The announcer revealed that the accident had happened about an hour ago and yes there were fatalities involved. A tear ran down her face as she thought about the families of those who were lost. The radio didn't tell of how many or who was taken but it didn't matter to her, the idea of someone out there getting that dreaded call, like the one she had received on that late September evening, she had just gone to bed thinking her day was over., but really it was her life that was drastically changed.

Sitting up in the seat as the traffic began moving at almost the correct speed limit, she said a silent prayer that all involved would find the peace they deserved, she was still looking for her own peace but knew that it was possible. She moved the car again in line with the traffic and as the flow moved quicker it gave her an eerie feeling almost seeing the cars perfectly proportioned aways from each other. 

 A sigh left her lungs as she finally emerged from the congestion and was finally exiting off the 4 mile stretch she had to travel on this interstate get back home. As she drove down the tree lined road being hit every few seconds with the sunlight as if a strobe light had been unleashed on her she headed towards her current residence with the thoughts of relaxing and laying down and being held by the soft warm bedding she said allowed herself to purchase that holiday season “well their Black Friday ended up being really dark.”