Bitter, Justified

He woke up happier than usual. Usually, as a result of his childhood, he was mad at the world first thing in the morning and then the day would proceed to incite full blown bitterness by 11am. Not today. Maybe it was good dreams, maybe it was solid sleep, whatever it was he was pretty chipper. It wouldn’t last.

He woke up pissed off. Maybe it was bad dreams, lack of deep sleep, whatever it was, he was growling by 7am. He wasn’t usually this way. He was typically upbeat with a positive outlook. He never had a hard day as a kid, unlike his partner in fate.

It was a left turn. Sure the signage wasn’t great but 99% of people made the turn without incident. Mr. happier than usual was returning home from a Dunkin Donuts run and given that he usually didn’t have to yield at this turn, was about to speed through per the usual. Mr. pissed off was about to make his own left but had to lock em up because of Mr. happier. Both cars screeched to a stop. Mr. happier looked out at Mr. pissed as if to indicate my fault, so sorry, mea cupla, this is on me, got lazy, again sorry. His right hand came off the steering wheel and formed an amity-style thumbs up – a peace offering, a dove for Mr. pissed. Mr. pissed flipped. 

He got out of his car, walked over to Mr. happier, pulled him out of his vehicle and eventually rendered him lifeless.

It seemed to be a clear case of road rage. But law and justice being the dicey things that they are, the case turned out to be a cascade of human fallibility. 

Here’s essentially what happened. It was established that Mr. happy was rendered lifeless by Mr. pissed – not in question. But, Mr. pissed lied, under oath, to his lawyer, to his wife and kids, to himself. He said the Mr. happy flipped him off. There was no act of contrition on the part of Mr. happier, no thumbs-up; no, there was defiance, there was  a i-don’t-have-the-right-of-way-but-i-don’t-give-a-fuck-so-fuck-you, as portrayed by Mr. pissed. The lie worked. 

People wondered if the rendering lifeless of Mr. happier was justified. He did give him the finger after all. He didn’t have the right of way. He was probably speeding. Didn’t he previously have a run-in with the police? “I mean, who does that?” people said.

The court case wrapped up by 11am one cold, windy November day. Had Mr. happier been alive, he would have been full-blown bitter and he would have been justified feeling that way.