A Young Man
He just graduated from college and got his first job in a prestigious hospital research lab. He was young and he had his whole life ahead of him.
The asphalt below him felt good under the seat of his brand new pick up truck. He was in the countryside about an hour from the heart of the city of Chicago. On his way back home he passed through a little sleepy town of about 15,000 people.
It was hot and humid outside, but inside the cab he was in the comfort of his new car with the air-conditioner blasting and his radio pumped up. It was late at night and there wasn't a car on the road. He was feeling groovy.
In front of him the traffic light was green and at this rate he would be home in twenty minutes, or would he?
As the pickup splashed through a puddle he noticed that the light had already turned yellow.
The radio was playing Bob Marley,
"Lord! You gotta keep on moving"
He remembered what his friend told him in high school,
"Red light; stop. Green light; go. Yellow light; go faster."
Then he pressed on the gas lightly and crossed the empty intersection and passed the empty shopping center on the corner.
A minute ago he was on top of the world.
Now everything had changed.
He saw red flashing lights in his rear-view mirror.
His first thought was,
"I wonder who is getting pulled over. There is no one out here."
As the flashing lights got closer, his heart sunk.
"Oh. It's me."
You know the feeling of getting caught by a teacher for not having your homework? This is like a thousand times more debilitating. It's like there was a heavy weight in his throat that dropped to his stomach the moment he saw the sirens flashing behind him.
He slowly pulled the car over to a safe place on the side of the empty road. He was going to have to completely entrust his life to this total stranger walking toward him in the dark.
He turned off the radio and put his driver's license, registration and insurance card on the top of the dash board.
The officer shone a flashlight around the car.
"Driver's license and registration please."
One look at the young man in the car and the police officer smiled.
"Why didn't you stop for the red light?"
Guilt
It was yellow when I entered the intersection officer. I thought it would be safer to proceed."
Then would you like a speeding ticket in addition to the ticket for running the red light?"
"No, officer. I understand the severity of the situation and appreciate your concern."
"Yes. I thought you would understand."
He wrote up a ticket for running the red light and said,
"Have a nice evening and see you in court."
He knew exactly what that meant.
A couple weeks later he was in the county traffic court hoping the officer wouldn't show. The court appointment was 10:15 AM.
As he watched the time tick down, he noticed the officer walk into the room and give him that smirk smile again. If that officer didn't show up, he wold have pleaded not guilty. Now the officer was standing right next to him and he had no choice.
Guilty
The judge took a look at the ticket and said,
"It says here you went through a red light. How do you plead?"
"Guilty."
That was the only answer he could come up with. He was sure the light was yellow when he entered the intersection, but it was his word against the officer.
"That's twelve hours of driver's education and a 120 dollar fine."
Back then 120 dollars was kind of steep for a fine, but that county was notorious for collecting fines.
A couple weeks later he found himself spending the weekend at a community college watching safety videos. The 120 hour fine and the twelve hours of safety training should have talked some sense to him, but he wasn't changed much. He basically thought it was a waste of a Saturday afternoon and he was out some lunch money.
A month later he was at it again. The light was green and then yellow. This time he was on his way to work on a rainy afternoon. The vehicle coming from the other side was going through the intersection at the same time. Because of the rain she couldn't stop and she collided righted into his new car.
They exchanged insurance papers, but that was it. He liked her British accent and wanted to talk to her again, but that never happened. What happened was structural damage to his new car. His insurance paid for it, but his rates went up. He could also never get the car fixed the way he wanted to. It lost its resale value and he saw the true severity of going through yellow lights.
It's more than a ticket and some hours in driver's education class. It's a matter of life and death. He began to understand the police officer that night and the smile on his face. He didn't feel so bad about paying the fine and showing up in court. He was in fact glad he went through the experience.
This story is in response to the inkwell's creative nonfiction promt 35. The pictures belong to me @mineopoly.
I'd definitely be annoyed at having to do the education!
Thanks for putting Bob in my head for the afternoon.
Touching! I've been in similar situation and immediately paid the fine when I was stopped by the police. The light was yellow and I thought I could beat it...I did beat it before it turned red. Yet I was stopped. 😄
Thankfully, you both came out okay! !LUV 🙂
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I think there wasn't an option of paying the fine immediately when stopped by the police. Because it was a moving violation he was required to go to court. I don't know if the law has changed now.
the story does have kind of a happy ending. Yet I prefer not to drive these days. I can get to work by public transportation well.
Thanks for stopping by and enjoying the story^^ !PIZZA
Weird how maturity, when it comes, colors the transgressions of our youth.
Sometimes it makes you shudder when you understand the escapes that you’ve had and the kind of consequences you might otherwise have paid (and the damage you might otherwise have done). ❤️💕❤️💕🤗🤗💕❤️❤️🙃🙃
You are too good at this @itsostylish
You read right through me.
I received a lot of grace in my lifetime.
!LUV
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I didn't know you can write a story very well..As a person who doesn't know how to drive, this is a lesson that I must keep in mind and I don't know if one day I would choose to get a driver's license.
By the way, do you still remember me? Haha I always like your Korea blog!
I remember my Korean posts with BCH. I remember a phillipina student with the ID "Sydney" who always had something bright to say. Good to see you here^^
Reminds me of the one I got pulled over by a cop after running red lights.
Cop: Don't you see the red lights?
Me: Yes I did
Cop: Why don't you stop?
Me: I didn't see you
🤣🤣🤣 I almost did not end up in the detention facility. Not my idea, I got it from a friend and thought it was fun, but almost got me into huge trouble.
!LOL
That's really good, but I don't think it will actually work... although you might get a laugh and that's something worth a hundred and twenty dollars.
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120 on the red light offense, another 120 for disrespect the officer of the law 😅
He could have done that, but he was very cool^^ Thanks for your insight from the insurance point of view. Life's lessons are usually learned the hard way.
Side note
I work in the insurance industry. Sometimes I need to watch this to make me feel a little bit balanced from the injustification why people commit a traffic offense and still get away from punishment.
Kids make a good defense and tax credit.
Amazing how we get to see things differently when we get first hand experience. Some things are best experienced rather than told.
Hi @wongi,
You are always quick with a comment.^^
It's like I should learn the first time, but it takes a while. Stubbornness?
Yessss, stubbornness could be a factor too. :). You don't seem stubborn though, are you?^^
Sometimes, things happen for us to get corrected and that's why the police and forces are on the highways to 'bully' us with fines when we go wrong 🙌
There are always some police in the world who are doing their job well and that officer was doing just that. It seemed meaningless that in the late night when no cars were present he would give me a ticket for a traffic violation, but it made sense to him because I disregarded the law. I had enough to pay the fine and spent all Saturday watching traffic videos, but what got me was when I got slammed a month later for doing the same thing. I understand so many cases when the police were up to no good, but I respect them for trying to maintain the law. Corruption in police is not a new problem but it seems to have spread. I think we should pray for them. It's a tough job.
This makes sense.
Oftentimes we see them as being corrupt, but deep down, they're doing their job.
It's not easy at all
Recklessness in traffic often becomes serious, from property damage to loss of life, at least your accident only resulted in damage to the car. In my opinion the yellow light has that hypnotic effect of accelerating more. hehehe.
Thanks for sharing.
Good day.
Hahaha.
So it's not a premeditated crime. I was hypnotized by the yellow and tempted to accelerate. Anyway the guilt got me and I haven't tried to go through a yellow since that second time.^^
And I guess most of us just learn the hard way. Sometimes we feel that because the consequences aren't so deep, we couldn't be bothered. Failing to realize the obvious.. but experience comes with maturity and you did mature in that aspect so I'm glad for you. 🤗
Thanks for your positive encouragement @jhymi.
But I'm still crazy after all these years.
I didn't expect any less. Lol
Hope your having a wonderful day.🤗
Thank you. It's been a busy weekend and busy week. Have a great one ^^
I was sure this was going to end really badly! Luckily you learned without anyone getting hurt 😲
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You followed the misleading foreshadow @wrestlingdesires. I'm a little bit sorry for that, but it was my intention.
I hinted at a bad ending in the beginning, but this is non-fiction and the "he" is actually me so I learned my lesson and that's about the end of the story. These couple car accidents in my early twenties did influence my decision to come to Korea. Nice public transportation here^^
It completely turned you off of driving? Really must have shaken you up :(
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You must be killin' it out here!
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You earned 1.000 PIMP for the strong hand.
They're getting a workout and slapped 1/1 possible people today.
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Yes. At this point I prefer not to drive. The sad one was the SAAB story. Luckily that's a very strong car, but it looked like an accordion after I was finished with it^^
Wow... I'm glad it didn't resemble a pancake though.
!ALIVE
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Me too^^
The consequences of disregarding traffic laws could serve a valuable lesson that shapes our perspective on driving and safety.
Yes. As a teacher you picked up the lesson learn here. But why do I always learn lessons the hard way?
Brilliantly introspective piece of writing. You tell a cracking story with so much verve and visual imagery. It’s a joy to read your work because you provide so much insight, in a rich layer, over the ordinary. Exceptionally interesting read.
Such superb compliments that I had to go back and edit the typing mistakes I made at the end of the story yesterday. !LUV
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Congratulations, @mineopoly !
This great story was chosen as one of this week's best stories. Thanks for writing it. It is part of the Featured Authors Magazine number 111
This is such an unexpected grace. Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity and encouraging me to write stories @gracielaacevedo