Giulia. What are you thinking about?
Kornel. I can't get this one lady out of my head.
Giulia. Who is it?
Kornel. I was driving towards the Susquehanna and I stopped at an intersection. I signaled right and there was a No Turn on Red sign, so I was just waiting for the light to turn green. Then some lady pulls up behind me and taps her horn.
Giulia. She wanted you to go on the red?
Kornel. When I didn't go, she then pressed down on her horn. The blare and accent was directed towards me alone.
Giulia. Are you serious?
Kornel. I saw her through my rearview window. With no sophistication, her eyes wanted to spring out and hurt me for not taking the right. Someone in one of the row houses across the street came to his front door out of curiosity.
Giulia. Why are people like that? What gives them the right to be like that?
Kornel. Impatience and ignorance give them that right. So I tried to communicate that there was a No Turn on Red sign by opening my window and pointing towards the sign, but she continued with her horn.
Giulia. Did you do anything?
Kornel. No. The unexpected can happen when approaching a stranger's car.
Giulia. I think I would have lost it if I were you.
Kornel. But my problem is that I can't let it go. I am overpowered by that incident. I've let her have this control over me. I think about more often than I should.
Giulia. Do you think you should have gone to her car?
Kornel. The way she was, I could have offered her flowers and a puppy and she still would have taken offense from me. There's no point in talking to a person stubborn-blind like that.
Giulia. But it sounds like she haunts you.
Kornel. She does. How do you get someone like that out of your head?
Giulia. I wonder if there's a support group for dealing with obnoxious drivers.
Kornel. Yes, I've been traumatized by one.
End. Obnoxious Driver Trauma