Traffic in midtown was at a standstill. There was an accident in one of the lanes, causing a major backup with buses, taxis, and cars lined bumper-to-bumper like a giant parking lot. She was tempted to get out and walk, but after the cab inched past the crash scene, traffic began to move again. She sat back and breathed a sigh of relief, but the flow only lasted for five blocks before the cars jammed up again. This time, instead of a fender bender, a bicycle messenger had fallen and spilled a backpack full of packages in the street. Some pedestrians stopped to help him retrieve the items, thus slowing traffic even more. Ariel looked at her watch; it was a quarter to three. Her appointment was in fifteen minutes, and they still had ten blocks to go. I can run faster than this taxi is moving, she thought. “You can let me out at the next corner,” she told the driver. The second he pulled over, she tossed a ten-dollar bill through the Plexiglas partition, gathered her briefcase and purse, and jumped out without waiting for her change or a receipt.
