The sky was dark and the road was full of life. Lois’ big sister, Carol, drove her modest sedan toward the city. She was going to do some shopping at a quaint organic food store downtown. Carol was a homemaker. While some may have looked at the job as second-rate, she looked at it like a career. Carol enjoyed tending to the home, washing clothes, dusting, and preparing dinner. She liked a clean habitat and enjoyed sharing it with her husband, Robert, who respected Carol’s choice in their marriage. However, no lives were perfect. The one thing hers lacked was a child, a little person to care for, to teach, and to love. It was not by choice, as she and her husband had spent almost a year of old pregnancy wives’ tales, but she soon received the terrifying truth. Her doctor explained it was a genetic defect in her ovary and the bottom line was that she could not conceive a child. Even with modern medical science, drugs, or surgery, there was nothing possible to change nature. That was about ten years ago. Carol and Robert considered adopting, but after a long, hard discussion, they chose to adopt a newly born beagle they named Lucy. The playful canine was their “child” and it filled the void. This left Carol even more protective of her younger sister, Lois. Carol was almost like another parent, not in the least bit condescending, but in a shielding way. Since their parents were retired and lived out of state, Carol made sure that she was there whenever her baby sister needed her.
As Carol drove, she thought about Lois’ date the previous night. The sisters would usually talk daily on the phone or during a visit, but it was not uncommon for a day to pass here or there without contact if one or both of them had been busy. After all, they were grown, married women. Carol figured that Lois and Roger had arrived home late last night after a lavish evening out and had a playful nightcap before an intimate encounter. Carol liked Roger, not just for his financial stability and honor, but also for the protection he offered her sister. She remembered one time how Roger called home as he usually did around lunchtime, but there was no answer from Lois. To make sure his wife was unharmed, he left work and sped home, only to find Lois taking a nap with the phone’s ringer accidently turned off. Carol knew her sister was safe with Roger. Even though Lois would sometimes complain about her husband’s forgetfulness, Carol was certain that Roger would never forget to protect her.
Carol had a busy morning and afternoon with the bi-yearly bedroom “deep cleaning,” as she liked to call it. It consisted of stripping their king-sized bed, washing the sheets, and then flipping the mattress. This was just the start of her work as she vacuumed the entire room by moving the dressers and night stands to pulverize the hiding dust mites. Robert didn’t like that Carol performed all of the shifting and moving by herself, but her adamant behavior was hard to change. This left her with little time to watch the news or even to read the paper, something she usually did in the morning. Robert was going to be working late at his corporate sales job, which left Carol to dine alone. She had a craving for a dish she made last month after she had read the recipe on the Internet. It was a baked black bean burrito filled with roasted chicken, steamed rice, fresh tomatoes, and a touch of basil. She had all of the ingredients except for the most important one—the black beans. The recipe required four ounces of black beans and the downtown organic specialty store had a naturally grown organic variety, perfect for her holistic way of eating. This was Carol’s reason for her voyage. By her calculations, it would be a short fifteen-minute drive into the city, ten minutes at the grocer, and then fifteen minutes back. This, of course, was dependent on minimal traffic and a close parking spot, but even in the worst case, she figured, it would be an hour tops for the trip.
Carol was nearing the passageway required to gain access to the city, the Pleasant Place Bridge, and she hoped traffic was moving quickly. The structure of the bridge came into her view. Its tall wire suspensions connected the two towers reaching for the sky. As she approached, she saw flashing red and blue lights from emergency vehicles in the middle of the bridge. At first, she thought a fender-bender was the reason for the emergency crew or even a crazed jumper. However, she realized two of the emergency vehicles were parked in the middle of the lanes, which prevented any traffic.
“What’s going on?” she mumbled.
Up ahead, two police cars blocked the entryway onto the bridge with a younger traffic cop standing guard. Only a few vehicles scattered the roadway, which was strange for the usually bustling bridge.
Did I miss something? she pondered.
As her senses surrendered to the mystery, Carol neared the traffic cop and rolled down her window.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“You didn’t hear, ma’am? There was a huge pile up last night on the bridge. It was a mess, but we’re almost done cleaning it up,” he responded apathetically.
Carol raised her hand to her mouth. She wondered how she had missed such a prominent story. Her day of intense cleaning must have been the reason for not catching the news. She didn’t read the newspaper, didn’t watch television, and didn’t talk to Lois or her husband. In fact, she realized she didn’t talk to anyone all day. Surely, she reasoned, this story would’ve been the first thing out of someone’s mouth who was from the city.
“Was anyone hurt?” Carol asked.
“Yeah, several died actually,” the traffic cop said.
His gaze transferred to the cars waiting behind Carol’s parked vehicle.
“Uh, you’re going to have to find an alternate route. We need to keep this area clear,” he instructed.
Carol was stunned. She looked at the colossal bridge built for a fleet of speeding vehicles, but all she saw was a traffic-less shell. The normally thriving structure appeared lifeless. There was an ominous aura radiating from it.
A sudden feeling of loneliness overwhelmed Carol. She yearned for someone to explain the situation, someone who shared the same exasperation that she felt. She thought of Lois. She wanted more than anything to speak to her little sister.
Chapter 11
Clouded Rainbow Page 10