Page 36 - Newcom

FICTION
By Edo Van Belkom
V ic watches closely trying to determine whether what he is seeing is real or not.
A little closer now, he is sure. In his mind, Vic goes through the next 5 kilometers of highway and realizes there is a huge bridge coming up and if the box is still up when the dump truck gets there something very bad is going to happen.
What can he do?
Vic’s truck was equipped with a CB radio when he bought it but he’d never used it much before since he’d never had a need to, especially now that everyone has a cell phone of their own.
V ic is driving along the QEW, heading back to the scrapyard for another load of steel.
It is a bright, sunny day, not too hot and
Vic is driving with the windows open and the radio playing. Traffic is moving well and he hasn’t even had to stop for traffic lights.
It is a perfect day for driving. As he merg- es with traffic onto the QEW, Vic notices a dump truck ahead that seems to be driving along with its box raised as high as it will go.
“Calling the dump truck on the QEW... Pull over, your box is up!”
Vic continues on the radio for a few kilometers, but without any response other than a few other drivers chiming in.
“What an idiot!” “Maybe he’s drunk?”
“What the hell is he thinking?”
In the distance Vic can see the outline of the Burlington Skyway Bridge.
He puts down the CB and decides to try and get beside the dump truck
driver to try and warn him, but traffic is moving well and it doesn’t look like the driver is slowing down. Still, after minutes of hard driving, Vic is able to get even with the driver. He blasts his air horn and does his best to warn the driver that his box is raised, but the dump truck driver only waves back at him.
Illustration by Glenn McEvoy
By now the highway is alive with the sound of cars on both sides of the road blasting their horns. But to no
avail. The truck just keeps on going.
Vic realizes the driver won’t be stopping for anything and the only thing he can do is slow down and get out of the way. Vic watches as the inevitable happens...
After the crash, Vic is able to get through the open lane and drive around the now stuck dump truck. He’s sorry he’s not stopping to help the driver, but that moment had passed and
now Vic is just glad he didn’t get stuck behind this truck for hours, or the rest of the day.
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36 Truck West • August 2018