the road crew

the road crew

fiction
edward w pritchard

Mike was late for work and the road crew had not put the detour sign out and drivers were getting all the way up to the end of the street before it became known to them that they couldn't go any further in this direction. About 100 feet before where the men were working the driver's could see and hear the bulldozers and equipment and men in orange vests digging and talking and sometimes smoking cigarettes. They couldn't go any further on this street. It was a crowded neighborhood and there were houses on each side, three or four must be passed until it was the end of the road, where the repair work was being done.

Everyone after they noticed they couldn't go any farther on this road went to the last house on their left, and then pulled into the drive and backed up and turned around and went back to where they had come from. No one turned to the right and noticing their faces as they drove they didn't look mad about being inconvenienced. Once the drivers realized they couldn't go any further, they just turned around and continued on their way. Everyone however, always went to the end of the road before they turned around in the last driveway.

The fact that Mike had been late for work and hadn't put out the detour signs didn't seem to matter. Most people are not really going anywhere anyway so most of the time one direction is just as good as any other.