The Commuter

By Chanuga Rollins

 

Chad hated traffic, especially Monday morning traffic, sometimes, he wished he’d never left the city. It wasn’t that long ago that his one-hour-plus ride would have taken twenty-three minutes and that would have included a trip to Starbucks.

But on this lovely Monday morning, he was missing his riding companion, best friend, and wife Darlene. She always invented new ways to make the long commute fun and interesting.

The couple didn’t always live so far from their jobs, both were born and raised in the city of Trenton, NJ, the armpit of the world, as Chad liked to call it. 

Their decision to move out of the city came about eight months ago when the couple realized that the home values in the city were dropping dramatically. That and high taxes, out-of-control crime, and lack of a yard for their daughter made the couple look elsewhere.

On the advice of a friend, Darlene, and Chad looked further into Southern Jersey, settling on the town of Hammonton.

 With a population of just under 15,000 residents, Hammonton, NJ still had that small-town feel that the couple was looking for. But Hammonton also had several good restaurants, a great big park, and a very good school system. 

Chad and his family settled on a four-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bath home on almost two acres. In the city, the family lived in a two-story row home where you could hear the neighbor's toilet flush and no yard for their daughter to play in.

For the first couple of months, the couple commuted together to Trenton, Darlene was an attorney for the state of New Jersey and Chad was a plant manager for a pharmaceutical company in Ewing Township, just twenty minutes outside of the city. 

But one afternoon, a tornado-like storm swept through South Jersey and Hammonton was right in its path. The storm tore down power lines, damaged homes, and flooded many of the roads. Their daughter Mia, now 12 years old, was home alone when the storm hit. Thankfully, a next-door neighbor whom the couple became friends with came over and took Mia to her home, where they waited out the storm in her basement. Because of the flooding and detours, it took Darlene and Chad almost three hours to get home that day.

That storm changed things for Darlene. The couple decided that it would be better if one of them worked closer to home. Because Chad's income was significantly higher than Darlene’s, it fell on her to find something closer to home and give up her state job. 

She immediately began sending out resumes. But within a month, three different law firms were interested in hiring Darlene. The firm she chose was located right in the heart of Hammonton, a ten-minute drive from her home and just minutes from Mia’s school.

So, Chad was forced to make the long commute by himself, he still believed the move out of the city was a good decision. 

Chad was caught up in his thoughts when out of nowhere a 1959 two-tone brown Bentley with dark tinted windows cut right in front of him for no apparent reason. That driver caused Chad to slam on his brakes and almost lose control of his vehicle. 

Chad looked around, at this moment there were no other vehicles around, so he couldn’t imagine why this other driver would do such a thing. Unless that person was having a medical emergency, but he couldn’t tell because the Bentley’s windows were so dark.

After a few minutes, the shock of crashing his car in the middle of nowhere wore off and Chad was back with his thoughts. Maybe the poor bastard had a wedgy, Chad laughed.

Chad rolled around what he had today at work when he couldn’t help but notice that the two-toned Bentley was in front of him and slowing down almost coming to a complete stop. What the fuck is this guy doing, we’re out in the middle of nowhere, and for the moment we’re the only two cars on the highway.

 Then all of a sudden the Bentley took off like a bat out of hell. Ok, he thought, it must be that wedgy, they are a bitch, Chad laughed again. Then suddenly, and for the second time, the Bentley driver slammed on his brakes, causing Chad to almost rear-end the very expensive car.

Now Chad was pissed off, he didn’t need this kind of shit on a Monday, and he blew his horn repeatedly! The Bentley switched lanes and was now parallel with Chad’s car. This guy’s fucking with me he thought, but why. 

When Chad sped up, so did the Bentley driver, when Chad slowed down again so did the other driver, but he or she always stayed parallel to Chad’s car. Then once again and for no apparent reason the Bentley cut Chad off, almost hitting his car and causing him to almost go off the road. 

Chad now was furious, the Bentley however sped off. Oh, no, you fucker, Chad thought you aren’t getting away that easy, and went after the Bentley. On the three-lane highway, it was now Chat’s turn to play. He caught up to the Bentley and when both cars were once again parallel, and he was certain that the Bentley owner was looking at him Chad began giving the driver the middle finger. The driver of the Bentley sped off, how do you like that asshole, Chad hollered, you better run. 

As Chad got closer to the city, the traffic increased dramatically, at times bumper to bumper. But once out of the city the traffic got lighter, besides Chad liked taking Route 29. Route 29 ran parallel to the Delaware River with the city on one side and the river on the other the scenic views were to die for, Chad loved taking this road to work.

Chad just made it to the outskirts of the city when he looked into the rear-view mirror, behind him and coming up fast was the Bentley. Chad had to speed up just to keep the Bentley from crashing into him.

The Bentley was once again parallel with Chad's car, furious, Chad began to once again give the driver of the Bentley the middle finger! The driver of the Bentley kept swerving towards Chad's car each time missing it by inches. Then for some unknown reason, the two-toned Bentley turned off of Route 29 as Chad made his way to work, he didn’t see any more of the Bentley.

A few minutes later Chad was pulling into the parking lot of Bing Pharmaceutical, putting that morning’s drama out of his head. There were meetings to attend, people to see, and a hell of a lot of calls to make.  

Two hours into his day, there was a knock on his door, followed by the face of Biff Newhouse. Biff was a salesman for Bing, meeting in ten big guy, conference room 3. Biff has had his eyes on Chad's job for over a year now, he was hoping that Chad would fuck up.

But fat chance of that, Biff will never get Chad's job, unlike Biff, Chad is well-liked and respected. Where Biff is often laughed at behind his back, and of course, everyone knows that he’s an ass-kissing rat. Chad just waved Biff off by saying that he had to make a phone call, and Biff disappeared.

Darlene and Mia were both home in bed sick, so Chad just wanted to check on them real fast. Chad neglected to tell his wife about this morning’s highway melodrama because she would worry. When he was done making his call home, Chad grabbed whatever files he needed and headed for conference room 3.

The Monday morning meetings were always special, the long conference table was filled with all kinds of pastries, all different kinds of croissants, bagels, cream cheeses, and a vast selection of donuts and of course all kinds of coffee. 

This is where all the movers and shakers of Bing Pharmaceutical mingle, eat, and come up with new ideas to keep Bing successful. As Chad selected a bagel, he looked around the big conference room and couldn’t believe just how far he’d come up in the company.

Chad started at Bing Pharmaceutical as a material handler when he was seventeen years old. Slowly, he moved up the line to supervisor, then to foreman, and from there to the sales department. Ten years later he became plant manager, not bad for a community college grad. 

Actually, it was the owner, Owen Bing, fifteen years Chad's senior. Owen Bing saw something in Chad the day he hired him, at least that’s what Owen told Chad the day that he promoted him to plant manager. 

Chad has always looked up to Owen Bing, so it came as a surprise to Chad, that Owen was once homeless. While living on the street, a guy asked him if wanted to make some money… That guy worked for another guy who owned a very small factory that made plastic bottles for pills. 

Owen just like Chad learned everything he could about the company, a few years later the owner died suddenly. Owen Bing had no intentions of being homeless again, so he borrowed some money from a friend and the rest is, as they say, history.       

Chad was finishing up his bagel when something outside caught his eye, in the parking lot and just a few feet away from his car, was the two-toned brown Bentley. Standing next to the Bentley was a very well-dressed elderly man, wearing dark sunglasses, he was staring up at Chad.

Throwing the remainder of his bagel in the trash, Chad bolted out of the conference room and down the three flights of steps to the lobby. Coming out near the security desk he asked one of the security officers to accompany him to the parking lot. 

Both men ran to the lot with Chad giving him a brief explanation of what was going on. Unfortunately for Chad, the Bentley and the elderly man were gone by the time they got to the lot. Seconds later three other security officers joined them near Chad’s car.  

Chad and the three security officers walked back to the building, and they all reassured Chad that he had nothing to worry about. But I don’t understand how he knew where to find me. 

He probably followed you here, one of the security officers said. Another officer said, this old fart is just trying to scare you, if he comes back, we’ll take care of him. In the lobby, Chad thanked the security officers for their assistance and then went back to the conference room.    

When Chad walked into the conference room Owen Bing looked right at him and said “Christ Chad,” that must have been one hell of a crap! Everyone in the conference room laughed even Chad, but his insides were turning.

The rest of Chad’s Day passed without any more incidents. Because he no longer commuted with his wife, Chad’s workday has become a little longer, not that he minded it, it gave him a chance to get more work done at the office instead of him having to bring work home on the weekends. besides, by staying later, the traffic was lighter so in reality, his drive home took less time.

Glancing up at the clock, it was 7pm, Chad called it a day, shutting down his computer and turning the lights off in his office, he grabbed his briefcase and headed for the elevator.

In the lobby, he thought about asking one of the night security officers to accompany him but then thought better of it, he didn’t want to come off as a pussy. 

Making his way through the lobby, he walked outside, and to his relief, there were only two other cars out in the parking lot beside his, and none of them were a Bentley. 

Chad made his way to his car, once inside his vehicle, he felt much safer, Christ, I am a pussy he thought. He started his car and headed out of the parking lot.

A few minutes later, Chad was back on Route 29 heading home. Because of the hour, there were very few cars on the road. Chad took advantage of this by going ten miles over the legal speed limit.

He got a couple miles down the road when suddenly, his car began to shimmer and shake. What the hell is wrong with my car he thought, he knew he had to pull over, but he was hoping to get closer to Trenton and maybe find a station that was still open. 

But unfortunately, that wasn’t going to happen, the shimmering and shaking were increasingly getting worse. Chad had to pull over, at this point the car was starting to sway all over the road. If Chad could make it, there was an old, abandoned strip mall not far down the road. 

When he pulled into the strip mall Chad thanked God that he made it safely. He got out of his car to see what the problem was, unfortunately, the old strip mall had no working outside

lights, nor did Chad have a flashlight. Squatting down near the driver’s rear tire, Chad immediately found the problem, someone removed the lug nuts on both of his rear tires.

He was furious, who the fuck would do such a thing… Chad was deep in thought, so he didn’t realize that another car pulled right behind him. With his back to both cars, Chad, using his cell phone tried to get help, it was then that Chad heard a car door open, and a woman asked if she could be of assistance. 

The woman was very well-dressed and elderly, strangely, she was wearing dark sunglasses even though it was dark out. But Chad thought fuck it, if she could help him he didn’t give a damn what she was wearing.

Even with the offer of help, Chad still tried his cell phone again, but he still didn’t have any service. A moment later the driver's side door opened, Chad couldn’t see at first, the high beams blinded him. But when his eyes adjusted Chad was horrified, it was the old man, the driver of the two-toned Bentley.

You crazy old bastard, you did this to my car, what do you want from me? Chad screamed! Although the old man stared at Chad with a slight smile, it was the old woman who had the gun. Without hesitation and not a word spoken, she fired two bullets into Chad’s chest. The old man got back into the Bentley, as Chad was sprawled out on the strip mall’s asphalt.

As Chad took his final last breaths of life he watched the elderly woman open the passenger door of the Bentley, before getting in, she made certain that Chad was looking at her as she gave him the middle finger!

The End

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