A Note on the Windshield

It’s about the effort, not the outcome

Photography by John P. Weiss

I blame it all on the evening breeze.

If not for that late afternoon gust of wind, the note beneath my driver’s side windshield wiper would never have flicked up, catching my attention.

I would have driven home, and the rainstorm that arrived later that evening would surely have disintegrated the note’s flimsy paper. I don’t believe in fate and I hope things don’t happen for a reason because the note altered my view of life.

Had I not worked late that day, maybe the note would never have found its way to my car’s windshield. But what’s the point in speculation, we can never really know why life unfolds the way it does.

When the breeze lifted the edge of the note into view, I was annoyed. No doubt another windshield advertisement. I stepped out of the car, lifted the wiper, and grabbed the small piece of paper.

The handwritten note was clearly not an advertisement. The letters were printed in lower case, and this is what they said:

“I hate you! I never want to see you again! You said you were working late but here you are, parked outside her apartment. Cheater! Don’t call me, and don’t show…