Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-14054617-20161004012305

 5 00 Monday was dark and rainy. The kind of day best spent staying home, and enjoying a book, or mindless daytime TV. Clarissa wasn’t too mad about having to work today though. She was only filling in for a co-worker until ten.

Still, standing in the rain was no fun anytime. The wind was blowing, making her umbrella barely useful, and her shoes were rapidly losing the fight to stay dry. And then there was the walk light.

The walk light stood across the wet street, its red stop signal glowed at her like a disapproving glare, daring her to cross against it. On her side of the street was a call button, something to tell the traffic light that a pedestrian needed to cross the street, and in the event no traffic was waiting, the light would change faster.

Clarissa hit the button in annoyance, to let the light know she was waiting. “Wait”came the sexless automated message that spoke during the ‘Don’t walk’ phase.

Clarissa looked up and down the street in both directions, than checked her watch. 5:06. She was going to be late at this rate, but lately the cops had been cracking down on jay walking.

She hit the button again, harder than necessary. “Wait” came the reply. It had started to sound vaguely smug to Clarissa. A deviant thing that was enjoying the annoyance it was causing her. Still the light glowed red, and still the rain fell, seemingly harder now.

5:10. Now she was really getting annoyed. This was the longest walk signal in history, and she was starting to think it was malfunctioning. She punched it several times in rapid succession. “Wait-wait-wait-wait-wait-wait” came the response just as rapidly, sounding more mocking than ever.

Looking up and down the street again, Clarissa made a decision. “Screw this.” She muttered and stepped into the street, only to be hit by a speeding garbage truck that, on the rain slicked pavement, never had a chance to stop in time.

“I said wait.” The autonomous voice said from the call button as the light changed to the walk signal.  