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The Traffic Jam, by Bruce Levine

7/8/2020

 
The Long Island Expressway was jammed – as usual… He tried to exit, but was stuck between them and the next exit was three miles ahead. All he could do was wait as the traffic inched along. He’d gone a total of two tenths of a mile in the last twenty minutes. At that rate it would take five hours just to get to the next exit. He was supposed to be at his relatives for a surprise birthday party in an hour and he still had forty miles to go.

Damn, he thought as he put the car in “park” and waited for the next time the traffic moved. He was even tempted to shut off the engine and save the gas.

Finally, and suddenly, everyone started moving again.

He inched further along and then he saw what the problem had been – two cows were standing across the lanes and the drivers had to maneuver around them to pass. Of course everyone also had to look at the cows which made the whole mess even worse, but that didn’t seem to matter to anyone.

As he passed the cows and the traffic returned to a normal speed he reflected on how he’d never seen cows standing on Broadway in Manhattan. He wondered what effect that would have if it did happen.

Then he remembered – it was Manhattan – no one would notice.
​
Pamela Kennedy
8/8/2020 02:39:45 am

Ha! loved it...because it's true!

Sue Clayton
9/8/2020 06:47:20 am

Loved the story. Just as fascinating as kangaroos hopping down a highway creating a car park. Harder to catch than a couple of cows though.


Comments are closed.

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    Friday Flash Fiction is primarily a site for stories of 100 words or fewer, and our authors are expected to take on that challenge if they possibly can. Most stories of under 150 words can be trimmed and we do not accept submissions of 101-150 words.


    However, in response to demand, the FFF team constructed this forum for significantly longer stories of 151-500 words. Please send submissions for these using the Submissions Page.

    Stories to the 500 word thread will be posted as soon as we can mange.

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    One little further note. Posting and publishing 500-word stories takes a little time if they need to be formatted, too.
    ​Please note that we tend to post longer flash fiction exactly as we find it – wrong spacing, everything.

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