STOP AHEAD.
He calmly presses the brake pedal, and slows down to a nice, gentle
stop.
He is at a crossroads.
He looks left.
The road runs perfectly straight and flat as far as he can see.
He looks right.
Same thing.
He looks ahead.
Straight and flat, too.
He looks back, just for the sake of looking back.
You’re supposed to remember where you came from, he thinks. And he
remembers.
He picked this way for a reason, days and days and miles ago,
and here he is.
A perfect crossroads. Four 90-degree angles.
And a 4-way red blinking light, blinking in each direction.
North.
South.
East.
West.
On.
Off.
On.
Off.
On.
Off.
There is no one around. No one and nothing. Two roads diverged not in
the woods, but in the middle of absolute nowhere. And neither path is less
traveled.
So he decides to put the car in park, and turn off the engine.
Silence.
Pure silence. Not even a breeze.
Just the ticking of the engine, cooling down.
And he sits.
And the sun sets. And night falls.
No moon.
Just millions of
stars blinking
and looking down at him,
and just a little breeze,
whispering gently but saying nothing.
Nothing at all.
He sits.
All night and all the next day.
Not a single car passes by.
It’s just him, and his car,
and the blinking red light.
Four choices.
Four directions.
What to do?
Where to go?
Does it matter?
No. he decides it doesn’t.
It doesn’t matter at all.
So he starts the car…
Looks left…
Looks right…
Looks forward…
Looks back…
…turns right
(West)
(towards the slowly setting sun)
…and resumes his journey.
