Red Light

Hazy gray clouds churned overhead, obscuring what little light remained in the day. A dense mantle of mist hovered above the streets and coated Richard's windshield as he slowed to a stop at the traffic light on Amerson and Chance St. His wipers squeaked across the modestly wet glass and smeared the coat of dust into a smudge of wet mud. 

"Fuck," he muttered as he pulled the wiper knob toward himself to eject a spritz of futile blue water atop the mixture that was now clouding his view. His wipers dragged back and forth a few more times before slowing to their regular pace. Rich leaned forward and looked up at the dark sky. Even if the storms weren't passing through, there would scarcely be any light left in the day by this hour. The days were getting shorter, and pretty soon this mist would be white-out snow, and the sky would be completely dark when he left the office as late as he did today. He rolled his eyes and shook his head in annoyance at the approaching winter, and when he picked up his phone, his agitation led him to press the Home button far more forcefully than was necessary.

late again? im waitinnnnnnng! the text from Kristen read. Richard shook his head and scowled at his phone as if she could see his face. He was tense on a good day, but when he'd just spent the last hour staying late to listen to his boss bemoan the decline of their quarterly sales, he was liable to burst a vessel. 

"And now I have to put up with your shit?" he muttered at the phone before clicking off the screen. 

He glanced at the streetlight on the corner and noticed a young girl standing alone in the light rain. "Hey, baby, need a ride?" He grinned at the inappropriate line that he'd never have dared say where she could hear him. The girl couldn't be much older than his own daughter. 

Then he noticed the sign she was holding. Black marker on a piece of soggy cardboard.

"EVERY LITTLE BIT HELPS.
THANK YOU. GOD BLESS."

Rich rolled his eyes and groaned. These people had become a plague. When he was a kid, you may have had to steer clear of one walking around if you were visiting a big city or something, but now they had taken over even the small towns! You couldn't even drive through a stop-light anymore without having to keep your composure and focus on the road to avoid an accidental eye-contact.

He looked to her eyes, but they were not looking back at his. They were fixed motionless on the ground in front of her. Her dirty, wet hair dangled unflatteringly in her face.

"Jesus, honey, at least look like you wanna be here." 

Why would I want to be here? her eyes seemed to suggest in the silence.

"Well, at least fucking try." With that useless sign and the eye-contact of a fifteen-year-old behind the counter at her first job at McDonald's, Rich would have been willing to double her cash just to bet she hadn't gotten any. 

"You really don't want to be here, huh?" he mused, looking back at her face and noticing the dark ring of a bruise around her right eye. He couldn't see her teeth through her closed, expressionless lips, but he'd have put even more money on their being yellowed, chipped, and haggard. "Where's your pimp?" he asked the silent car. "Is that why you kids are all over the streets now? Some asshole pushing you all out here to beg for him?" 

You couldn't walk to get a cup of coffee without having to pass through some poor slut's aroma of piss and body odor anymore. Maybe if they spent more time at their desks and less times on their backs in the schools nowadays, this country wouldn't have this type of problem. 

"You think I want to give you what little cash is in my wallet?" He was already paying taxes to support these parasites, and if he dropped his dollar in her cup just because she showed a little more tit than the next girl, he'd be right back in the same position at the next light, staring into the next empty cup!

His phone lit up from his lap.

hurry up! when am I gonna get that dick, Dick?

He closed his eyes and sighed before opening them to look back at the light. Still red. And he was still 20 minutes away from Kristen's house. 

5:50 at the latest, he typed back. 

Before he pressed Send, a woman walked by his window. She was well-dressed and carrying an umbrella. Her rapid pace slowed as she approached the girl at the streetlight. 

"Don't do it!" Richard groaned. "There's another one at the next corner! You'll be bankrupt before you make it home!" 

But the woman didn't retrieve her wallet. She merely handed the girl her umbrella. Rich watched in disbelief as the woman patted the girl's hand and turned to walk back down the sidewalk. His eyes met hers, and he did not attempt to conceal the disdain he was feeling. 

Really? Your umbrella, you do-gooder? he thought. 

The woman stopped, looking into Richard's eyes. After a moment she turned and hurried back to the girl, this time taking out her wallet and handing over a bill. The girl merely nodded and continued staring at the concrete.

When the woman turned back, her eyes fell immediately upon Richard's. He squinted his face in disgust. "Whatever."

The woman walked by his car and did not remove her gaze from his own. Because everyone hits a shitty spot at some point in their lives, she seemed to say as she passed. Her voice was so vivid, Richard actually broke eye-contact to turn and look at his empty passenger seat. He turned back and craned his neck to follow her as she continued down the sidewalk and got into her own car. How or why she got here is of no consequence. She's still a person. 

The light turned green, and Richard's phone, which had dimmed, lit back up.

Jason gets home in 1 hour! R u cumming?!? ;)

He looked at the girl as he released his foot from the car's brake. She never lifted her gaze from the ground, but her mouth was working to remain void of expression. 

Who are you to judge? the woman's fictitious voice spoke in his head. He looked at his phone and then again at the green light. Someone gave two quick taps to their horn in the car behind him.

As he touched the gas pedal, he glanced at the girl on the corner one last time. The faintest smile touched one corner of her lips. 

Everyone hits a shitty spot at some point in their lives ...

Richard swung his steering wheel around without checking his mirror. He slipped into the empty right-hand lane and turned right at the light, rather than going straight toward Kristen's house. 

5:50 at the latest, he had typed out.

He erased his text without sending it. Jason would be home in an hour, and she wouldn't really miss him too much. 

Tonight he'd surprise his wife and daughter by getting home early and taking them out to dinner.