The STOP sign knew it was the most beautiful sign of all. It knew because every single car stopped to admire it. Of all the signs with words, the STOP sign was the only one to get every car to stop and check it out.

‘I’m the most fascinating of all word signs,’ the STOP sign sang to itself, ‘I wonder what I mean.’

The STOP sign saw the red traffic light got a similar reaction. The STOP sign did its best to forget how jealous it was of the red traffic light. ‘And it’s even more beautiful because it’s light, and it shines through the night; I disappear to silhouette,’ the STOP sign lamented. It figured it was the red that got the cars’ attention.

‘It must be the red, what else could it be? Only the red light stops cars in their tracks. Yellow only sometimes gets them to stop, and green never gets them, in fact, they always leave as soon as it goes green; cars must hate the color green.’

The blue Corvette didn’t love the red STOP sign, barely slowing down, going through, smack into a yellow Prius making a left turn. Miraculously neither driver was seriously hurt, though, the Prius was the size of an accordian.

The STOP sign learned a lot about itself when it heard the policeman say, “…and for failing to stop at a STOP sign,” while pointing to our hero.

‘I’m a STOP sign? The cars don’t stop cause they want to, they stop cause they have to? I’m an inconvience, not a great beauty.’ The STOP sign looked to the traffic light and saw a line of cars sitting, idling at the red light. Then the light went green and all the cars drove away. ‘Green is free. I want to set cars free, not keep them like hostages.’

And just like that the STOP sign turned green with envy. Of the next ten cars to pass, six would stop, though, confounded to see the sign had gone green. Four more cars would see green, ignore the word, and drive through. The green STOP sign wouldn’t be replaced until three days later, when an eighteen year old named, Vance, would crash his mother’s Saab right into the side of a rented Buick driven by Saul, the same man who had written off his Prius three days prior. The next day Saul wrote off cars and bought a bus pass.