impedance

 

The water of the world floats in the air as a mist. It is the fog that impedes my view of the world as I drive to work, leaving a few scant feet of warning ahead. The present has to come to me immediately, in it’s own instant and I’m forced to deal with it in that moment without prescience. I have to look at the immediate, stretching out time and space as much as I can. I think of Einstein’s theory of time travel, wherein the faster we move through space, the slower time moves, so one could end up in the future; time being malleable and elastic.

Right now, the clock remains ahead of me. I never pass the time. One one thousand, two one thousand… A thousand is a lot and all of it is in front of me, in the form of a van with an overly cautious driver at the wheel. I weave along the road to look around it but there’s no view of the potential beyond, only the miasma of the air we’re pushing through. I’m impatient, all elastic energy. My foot is on the brake again and again, aching from too much flexing. I wish this turtle would move. The radio comes in weak through this laden air too. I switch to my tape deck and listen to a muddy version of "New Orleans is Sinking".

We come up to an intersection and the van in front of me slows to a stop. It looks empty, sitting there as if sleeping. I’m sitting here watching it sit, seeing nothing in that huge surrounding fog. "Go!" I yell. "Move!!" Finally he lets go and crosses the intersection into the mist.

I’m up now, trying to divine any presence that may be approaching through the gray mass. There’s nothing to be seen. I move out onto the road and almost as soon as I do, headlights arrive, moving into my vision with speed on their heels. I’m the obstacle now. I gun the engine and at the worst possible moment my wheels spin, screaming a horrible rasping sound. In all my impatience, I can’t move at the speed I need. My mass presses me down yet doesn’t provide enough friction to propel me forward. Time advances, space doesn’t diminish and I’m in a skip, like a palpitating cd glitch. I see the headlights advancing on me, their speeds already actualized and productive and I panic. My life flashes before my eyes as I fear the prospect of being t-boned but luckily, my wheels catch and I am released from fate. I come to the other side, heart pounding. I’m here now, moving at my own speed. I try to relax myself. Work is just a few minutes away. I don’t have much further to go now.

Reviews

[Wendy Seames Garner]

Very nice piece, Kees, you had me on the edge of my seat. Maybe next time you won't be so impatient.