The Tailgater and the Very Unmarked Car

I was doing exactly the speed limit in the right lane on the highway, because a car ahead of me had its blinker on and I was leaving room for it to merge. Behind me, a man in a big pickup decided this was a personal insult.

He rode my bumper so close I could not see his headlights, only the grille. He flashed his high beams. He laid on the horn. He gestured. I did not speed up, partly out of principle and partly because there was, again, a car merging in front of me that I could plainly see and he apparently could not.

Finally he could not take it anymore. He swung into the left lane, floored it, pulled alongside me, rolled down his window, and delivered a truly heartfelt gesture and a shout I could not hear but could certainly interpret. Then he cut back in, hard, right in front of the car I had been so politely letting merge.