Only One Digit Was Showing

Some person with a neat imagination looked at the red “don’t cross” hand at the corner traffic signal and saw something nobody else had seen before.

The Finger.

The perpetrator took some electrical tape and covered up the index finger, the ring finger and the small finger ... leaving only the thumb and the middle finger sticking out. It was amazingly subtle until you noticed it; then you could see nothing else when you approached that intersection.

It was a wonderful show of midnight talent, of vision and planning, perhaps even the surprise that Those In Authority would not notice it. Or, having noticed it, would say, “My thoughts exactly.”

Eventually, person or persons unknown caught wind of this wondrous re-making of what had been, till now, something between a joke and a political statement.

“Vandalism!” they probably shouted over their coffee and donuts. “Since we can’t finger the suspect, we must suspect the finger has been irreparably damaged. Send the police, the fire ladder truck and the public works people there at once!”

So they removed the electrical tape and the magic was gone.