ecksesyz 21

invisiblility part 2

Powers of invisibility are all very well.
But i seem to have lost control of them.
I'm invisible now when i don't want to be.
Visible when i'd rather be invisible.
Like that day in that bloody meeting when i suddenly wished to disappear, to not be seen, to not be there.

On a drive home last week, not one but two separate cars pulled out in front of me. I swerved to miss the first one - who started to pull out, then tricked me by sort of stopping, as if they'd seen me, but then just kept on coming. 10 or so minutes later, with this new expectation, I saw the next one coming and braked in time. So the powers of invisibility now extend to my car as well.

I blame the holiday season. Lots of silliness on the roads.

One morning, while cycling to work i suddenly felt a presence behind then beside me. A huge people-mover brushed my elbow as it passed, so close that i could hardly comprehend. It was all over in seconds. I waved an arm at the behemoth's tail as it gained speed and i mouthed something along the lines "WTF".
Bewildering. I was in a lane that no car should have been in, unless it had illegally failed to make a left turn at the lights. I had been in that lane for quite some time. It wasn't as if i'd just appeared there. So there's no way i was invisible. I can only think the driver had turned her attention to something else in the car - her mobile phone in her handbag; perhaps she was scrabbling around under the passenger seat for something.

I kept cycling, heading down hill and gaining speed.
Up ahead i saw the people-mover swerve, across my bike lane, and into a random parking space.
Wow - she really is driving BADLY today.
As i sped past i turned and saw her face through her window, waving frantic hand signals at me, mouthing words.
Too late i realised she'd stopped for me - to apologise, or make excuses.
Too late, i was well past, gaining downhill momentum.
I imagine she was completely freaked out by what she'd nearly done.
If i'd been just a little closer to the centre of the road.....

I trust there's one more driver on the road who is now very aware of cyclists.

Note that I was wearing a fluorescent cycling shirt, in a dedicated bicycle lane, in broad daylight.
Yet still invisible.