Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Headbangers

One afternoon last Summer I pulled off the freeway and came to a red light.

There was a truck in front of me that was basically bouncing and shaking in place like an amusement park ride or like it was resting on a mechanical bull. Upon closer inspection there were two gentlemen inside the vehicle headbanging. They were thrashing like there lives depended on it, making the car really rock. It looked like they were communicating with the occupants of the car in front of them. Music was blaring that I could not quite place due to a degree of muffling.

They kept thrashing for about ten seconds before the driver looked up and I saw his startled look in his eyes in the rear view mirror and his body stopped.

I gave horns.

They gave horns.

They went back to their thrashing and I thought I could feel their smiles.

There was finally a green light. All the cars in our line moved forward for a bit and then came up on another red light.

The thrashing commenced once again.

I am getting really entertained by them at this point, although I imagine the loud music and vehicle rocking is irritating a certain percentage of other drivers who do not possess my particular type of sense of humor.

There is a sudden jerking and lurching motion even though the light has not changed. It appears the driver in his moshing, thrashing trance has let his foot slip off the brake and rolled into the car in front of him.

I drive around them as both the headbangers and the occupants of the car in front of them get out to inspect for any damages. I hope the five mile per hour bumpers held up, but it looked like it was bumper of a truck to trunk of a little sedan. The poor headbanging driver looks genuinely remorseful and is almost pulling out his very long hair. The passenger of the car in front looks very, very irritated and is holding a digital camera.

Were they friends before? Were they friends after?