Segway to Hell
The pugnacious man on the electronic scooter. Everyone in the neighbourhood knows him. Or of him. Zipping around the neighbourhood, he terrorises the pedestrians with his erratic and high speed driving, as well as frantic honking and shouting.
One is never be sure if he will be weaving in and out at high speeds from the back and almost knock into anyone as one is stepping out from the bus stop to flag down the bus. This has happened a few times, to the point everyone believes there is an alarm system on his electronic scooter which reminds him to zip past people from the back as they step out from the bus stop or get off the bus into the bus stop. Even more alarming, he will turn back to flip a bird or scream an obscene or both as he ignores what is in front of him and proceeds to narrowly mow down other pedestrians.
Once, an elderly woman was getting up from a bench in the park after feeding the pigeons when he flew past her on the electronic scooter, startling her so much she plonked right back on the bench, clutching her pounding heart. “Fuck you, you dying hag,” he screamed as he extended a middle finger toward her.
Then there was another time, a child was waiting for his dog to finish doing its business so he could pick up after his pet. Hardly had the child picked up the turd and turned around to throw the little bag into the bin on the pavement did the same man zipped past the child, scaring him so much he fell down and smeared the dog turd over himself. “Fuck off, you little piece of shit!” he shouted.
Today, a father is putting out the rubbish for the garbage collector. Again, the same man zips down the pavement, honking frantically. But the father fails to notice and steps back after depositing the bags of rubbish. The man swerves to avoid him and turns back to give him the middle finger.
“Fuc-” the man never has the chance to complete his swearing as he turns the corner, colliding into a car parked on the side of the road. There is a weird crackling sound from the man as he falls and rolls onto the road, his electronic scooter falling on him.
He groans but does not move. “Help…help me…I can’t move,” he whimpers. “Somebody…help…me…”
The father looks at the man and his electronic scooter. Then he shrugs, turns on his heel and goes back into his flat; he thinks the man is just going to swear at him and his time is better spent on answering the ringing phone. On the other side of the road, the old lady who is sitting on the bench and craning her neck to see what has happened, turns back and continues feeding the pigeons; she hears nothing but the coos of the pigeons. Further up ahead the pavement, the child who is waiting as his dog is marking a fire hydrant, sees the man rolling onto the road; but he starts chasing after his dog when it runs off to investigate a bush, hearing nothing but the barking of his dog. At the bus stop, a bus pulls in and passengers get on and off; they hear nothing but the electronic beeps of bus fare and the chugging of bus engine.
Life continues in the neighbourhood but not for the electronic scooter rider.
*evil grins at this story*
A group I hate besides pedestrians who are glued to their phones as they walk are these irresponsible electronic scooter riders. Pedestrians who are glued to their phones as they walk are annoying, because I have no eye contact with them so I have no way of knowing if they want to step to the left or to the right – we usually end up in an impromptu and awkward choreographing of waltz. My favourite trick is to stop in front of them and let them figure out which way they want to go.
But these irresponsible riders, weaving around on their silent electronic scooters at 30kph, sometimes 40kph even, on the pavement, there is no telling what is going to happen at times.
So please, if you are one of the riders, have the decency to slow down instead of just zipping silent past pedestrians.
If you are interested, the prompt is linked below.
On to this week’s challenge: Using this photo as inspiration, write a short story, flash fiction, scene, poem; anything, really; even just a caption for the photograph. Either put it (or a link to it) in a comment or email it to me at keithchanning@gmail.com before 6pm next Sunday (if you aren’t sure what the time is where I live, this link will tell you). If you post it on your own blog or site, a link to this page would be appreciated, but please do also mention it in a comment here.
Prompt: Kreative Kue 230
From the Window Seat 