I'm driving near campus and as I turn through an intersection, there is a bag on the road in front of me.

I stop and honk.

But the bag just stays there. A vinyl shopping bag stuffed with something soft.

I didn't know you could still get vinyl shopping bags.

I walk up to the bag and yell at it: "Hey! Get out of the street! I'm driving here."

Cars are starting to line up behind mine. There is nothing I can do about it. The bag isn't moving.

"What's your damned problem?" I yell, and then finish more quietly,"You stupid ... sack." I don't want to yell a epithet– you never know who is listening.

The cars behind me start honking.

"You're holding everybody up!" I yell at the bag. But it completely ignores me.

I look around, but I am not sure exactly what I am looking for. Help, I guess. Of some form.

I'm starting to sweat. Where are the police when you need them. Out blowing into people's windows, probably.

A man yells from his window. "Get out of the way."

"I know." I yell back sympathetically, and cast a fierce glare at the bag.

The man gets out of his car, and comes towards me. "What's going on?" he says. Not very nicely, mind you.

"This bag is just sitting here. It won't move." I explain.

"It's not really up to the bag, is it?" he says.

"I just got here, man." I say.

He says something about foreigners, then picks the bag up, throws off the side of the road, and walks back to his car.

The bag just lies there, lifeless, where it is thrown. It is not moving at all, and a thick dark liquid leaking from its bottom.

The man honk's again from his car. "Get going!"

I climb distractedly back into my car, and drive out of the intersection.

It haunts me to this day.