Strange Stone

"Hey, Mr. Smith!" The old man who was looking longingly out in his veranda turned towards the the young man calling his name. "That's the last of the furniture. I think the other guy is at the new house waiting to move it all in." "Oh good, your service sure is fast and efficient." The man smiled his corporate usual facade. "We do our best, better than the rest!" The slogan drilled into him naturally spilled out regrettably.

"Here." Mr.Smith reached into his pocket and extended a closed fist, "Sadly I don't have any cash on me for a tip but a gift for service well done, please I insist." As he extended his arm and held his hand out the old man took the underside and placed an amulet on his palm. "I feel that this will have more value to you than for me." It was a simple singular stone in the shape of a twisted loop, confused he put it in his work shirt pocket and thanked Mr.Smith. "Only time will tell, trust me." The old man Smiled.

In the cargo truck while wedged firmly between traffic he grew impatient, listening to the same 5 most popular songs playing on the radio repeatedly cursing himself for leaving his phone at home. A ham radio occasionally crackled with his manager requesting updates on his location enroute to the destination. "What in hell is taking you so long? Our guys already over at the other house basically had their third lunch break at this point." "I'm still 2 turns away from the highway." "You've got an hour to get there after that, that's YOUR lunch break!" Looking over to the GPS its ETA displayed three hours from 5pm traffic. Banging his hand on the steering wheel then his head following after, he weighed his choices.

After awhile he was finally on the highway reminding himself that his lunch break was on the line as his one-way ticket to eating something. Skipping breakfast to make it to work on time this morning. He decided to speed, zipping through cars he was both careful and reckless, pissing off a few fellow drivers by cutting them off, apologizing in the back of his mind. He was focused on blazing through traffic and encroaching on a bridge over a lake. Driving on the right lane of road hoping to reach past the light before it turned.

When he finally realized that he was gonna make it his gaze turned back onto the road. He noticed at that moment a women walking onto the street. Panicked his foot slammed the brake, pressing his back against the seat for the whiplash, the acceleration wasn't slowing down enough. Turning his wheel to the right cursing repeatedly "FUCK FUCK HOLY FUCK!" The truck whipped in his desired direction but still too fast, breaking through the guardrails head first into the water.