speed limit 55

I was driving home on the freeway after seeing a movie with a friend. The sun had probably set about an hour earlier, and the sky was a lovely dark indigo blue with specks of clouds. The roads were fairly empty, and I kept to myself in the right lane, singing along to Elliott Smith.

There was a car slowly catching up to me in the middle lane. I could feel it with trepidation – when cars approach that slowly, they are not about to pass quickly. Usually I would encounter this situation on long trips to Wisconsin – sometimes your cruise control was only about a half a mile faster than the next guy. I always found it awkward to pass someone like a turtle, so I would accelerate to make the act of passing quick and easy, like pulling off a bandaid.

But the people edging up next to me were not about to do that. I could either slow down or speed up – so I sped up a little, but not a lot. They seemed to be right behind me, no matter what speed I was at. It was creeping me out a little, and I refused to look over. There were slow-moving cars in the middle lane, and they moved into the left lane to pass them. Their car and my car seemed to be moving at the same speed, perfectly matching each other.

We passed the cars simultaneously, and soon after they creepily moved into the middle lane again, sidling right next to me. If we were at a bar instead of on the freeway, their hands would have been very close to my body, and not in a way that I would have found flirtatious or sexy. I held my ground, put my foot on the gas, and sped towards the interchange. I slowed down and downshifted as I moved into the exit lane. I finally turned my head to the left just a bit as they passed me, continuing straight ahead. There were three males in the car, and the one in the back seat had his head turned around to look at me. I felt strangely violated as I rounded the curve and headed home.