Brake lights popped on and Brenda slammed her brakes on the expressway. She cursed under her breath. The thud of metal on metal was heard next to her. She looked to she her two neighbouring cars on the left collided. She looked ahead and saw half a dozen rows of cars gridlocked. Ahead of them were brown men carrying red flags.
She honked but it only blended into harmony with the honking ahead of her. Beside her the fender-bendered driver got out and started yelling at his assailant. The assailant got out, yelling back and waving in the general direction of the flag bearers ahead.
They were parked on the Gardiner just before the Spadina exit. The escape ramp teased them in sight, but the crowd was not letting anyone through. Ahead to her left, the CN Tower stood tall.
In the seat next to her sat the cannoli’s she’s gotten from XXX to take to mum. It was the first time seeing her since they’d fallen out over Malik.
Malik was out of the picture now.
People were getting out of their cars and looking out.
“Fucking retards,” said the driver to her right.
More people were joining the flag bearers, coming up the on-ramp. Traffic in the other direction was backed up as well.
Brenda looked behind her to see her odds and cars were backed up for a mile. The previous off-ramp was too far back for all these cars to get off without serious coordination. It was rush hour. More cars would be joining the jam every minute, and right-facing cars would soon back up the off-ramp and plug it up. In Toronto traffic, if any artery backed up, it was a quick cardiac arrest.
There was no mention of this on the news radio.
She made the call.
“Mom, I’m going to be late.”
Brenda heard the live news chopper overhead and she tuned back into the rado.
Suddenly the news from parliament hill broke off and a drumroll led to the following:
“Breaking news. Protestors of the civil war in Sri Lanka have walked onto the Gardiner Expressway. We have a visual now.”