I wrote this a few weeks ago back when there was snow on the ground. It made me happy :)

Traffic Jam

      While sitting in my car this morning at a stoplight on Happy Hollow Boulevard, I saw the strangest thing. A boy of about eight was running down the sidewalk trail hundred feet or so off the street. He was bundled in a black coat, snow boots and hat. An arctic ninja who epically failed at concealing himself in his snow covered environment. What looked like a miniature briefcase, like the thing my Grandma gave me to carry my Bible in when I was eight, swung wildly at his side. He was running, and his arms were stiff and straight at his sides, and yet they wiggled about as if they didn’t know how they were supposed to be aiding the rest of the body in its frantic forward motion.
      So many thoughts tripped over each other in my mind rushing to be the first one addressed: I wish it were socially acceptable for me to run to school when it’s cold outside. Why is he running? He can’t be late it’s like 7:45 am. What is wrong with his arms? Is he the tin man? I hope he doesn’t have a Bible in that stupid little briefcase. However, none of these thoughts got their chance.
      The light had turned green and the person behind me blared their horn so I’d quit gawking and get moving. I moved a few car lengths forward, keeping the Tin Ninja in my line of sight. The light turned red again. I stopped and cranked the dial for the heater on my dash.
      Crap! Tin Ninja went down. I whipped my head around trying to find out where he went. Did he slip? Is he lying in a snowdrift? How did I miss it? Aha! He popped back up! But wait? What's going on now? There were dozens of arctic ninjas throwing snowballs. Where was my Tin Ninja? Was he ambushed? Aha! I spotted him batting down a snowball with his bible case, but not seeing the assault from behind and getting smacked in the back of the head with a well-aimed shot. He took off running again. Now I had to watch him through my rearview mirror. He was almost to school. Run, little dude!
     He escaped from the pack. The other ninjas hadn’t noticed he was making his break toward the schoolyard. They were busy pelting each other. Honk! Again the light was green and there was a large space in front of my car. Evidently the people behind me have something better to watch wherever they were going. I made it through the light, finally, leaving Tin Ninja behind. I like to think he made it out of the battle alive.