A Paperback With A Violent Ending

Late one foggy night, I was driving to my parents’ house on a rural road which, at that hour, had little traffic. I came across a car ahead of me going the same direction, well under the speed limit, that was slowly drifting from the left lane toward the right. I slowed down and the car eventually went off the road onto the shoulder and then, with a jerk, back up onto the road. Then, the car slowly began drifting from the right off to the left. Repeat. Crap, a drunk driver, I thought. Oddly, I could see the dome light was on in the car.

This was pre-cellphone, or I would have called 911. I waited until they were almost off the road on the right, then sped past in the left lane. I glanced over and the forking idiot had a paperback book open up on the steering wheel and was reading it. While driving. At night. IN THE FOG! I don’t think the guy even noticed me as I went past.

As I got ahead of him and just before he disappeared in the fog I could see him still drifting across the lanes…