Swallowed

Ed had always hated surprises.

Ever since he was a little boy he couldn't stand them.

And today's surprise was no different.

The day had started off like any normal day. Ed had gotten up at 6:00am on the dot. He had done his 10 push-ups and 20 lunges, brushed his teeth, taken a shower and sat down to his bowl of cereal.

The surprise came on his way to work.

Ed was sitting in traffic on the 101 slowly inching his way to work. He was listening to his daily Spanish lesson podcast.

But then all of a sudden, there came the surprise.

The earth started shaking. The cars were all rattling and even their slow progress across town came to a halt. All around Ed the earth began to open and his car began a slow descent underground. It appeared that only he was subject to the sinkhole forming under his car. 

Slowly, slowly Ed sunk. First 10 feet, then 20 until the light above him was eventually swallowed by the darkness.

It was hot this far underground so Ed unrolled his windows. He was satisfied with his choice  of having sprung for the electric windows and so did not have to lean across the passenger seat to manually unwind the other window.

Still, he gave a sign of annoyance. He had always hated surprises.