Squishable

Light bounces from one tree to the next as my small Chevy races past them going 80 kilometres an hour. Actually, the speed limit says 80 kilometres an hour, my speedometer says 90, but that’s beside the point. Why on earth my mother decided to get a cavalier is beyond me. Yea, I understand they are affordable, and I can’t complain because it is a car, but still. I can barely see anything past these pathetic headlights. These are supposed to be high beams? I’ve seen bicycles with reflectors brighter than these! “Are we there yet?”, Chantal says beside me. I didn’t even notice that she turned the music down and stopped singing along with the lyrics. “You have been there before; you know that we have at least 15 minutes of driving left until we get there”. Chantal gives a big smile and turns the music back up again. I look in my review mirror and see Steve sitting in the backseat. I smile to myself and he looks back at me through the mirror. “Amanda, where did you learn of this place? What’s it called again?”, he asks curiously. “Silver Harbour”, Chantal chimes in and goes back to her song. I can’t help but giggle. “Silver harbour is a place that a good friend of mine showed me at the beginning of summer. It’s somewhere I can go to think and relax. It’s my happy place”, I said still concentrating on the road. Chantal and Steve start to talk about nothing special, just giggling and laughing at one another. I am an innocent bi-standard in all this. I’m just the driver, still leaning over the steering wheel trying to see the upcoming road. I have driven this road a hundred times or more. I know the bends and the curves like they are the back of my hand. I know by which road markers I have passed, how much longer I have until I arrive at the Harbour. I glance at the clock on the dash. It reads 11:45. 11:45 at night isn’t a bad time to be driving in the city. Everything is bright and well light. In the country, however, it is an entirely different story. You should try and avoid it if possible, mainly because of night dangers like deer. Of course I didn’t think of that until now. The conversation between Steve and Chantal is still in full swing. Watching my friends make fun of each other, bicker and laugh is something I can watch for hours. My friends are everything but dull.

It is the end of summer, but you would never know it by the temperature. I reach for the air knob and turn it up a notch to cool down the car. I glance at the clock again. “11:50”. I drive around a sharp corner in the road that bends to the right. I know after the bend it is a straight stretch from here. We only have about 10 minutes left to go. Looking out over the road, searching in the blackness, something catches my eye. I stop laughing and look directly at it, placing my foot on the break pedal in case I need to stop suddenly. Steve and Chantal must have noticed my concentration too, as they are looking directly at the object as well. My mind is racing. A thousand thoughts are going through my mind. It’s too small to be a deer. It’s not moving quick enough to be a rabbit? It can’t be a person in the middle of the road out in the sticks. Finally, my pathetic excuse for head lights literally shines some light on the object. I froze. Skunk! “Amanda!”, was the word the two simultaneous and nervous voices say to me. Out of everything they could say at that moment, they choose my name.

I took young drivers a few years back. I remember a lot of what they taught me. They always said if you are confronted with a small animal in the road they become squishables. You need to hit them instead of putting everyone else in danger. One problem with that idea, I’m an animal lover. Even the thought of killing a creature makes me sick. The skunk is in the middle of my lane. I can’t take the chance of swerving into the oncoming traffic; there might be a vehicle that is coming up fast or without head lights. Thunder Bay is notorious for bad drivers and I wouldn’t put it pass them to drive without head lights. I can’t swerve off the road or the car will crash into trees and we might not make it at all. I’m moving much too fast to hit my breaks and stop in time. My options are quickly weighed out and the only option to save everyone is to hit the skunk. I never take my eyes off the road. I grip the wheel so tight I can feel my knuckles going white. My driving instructor’s voice is coming to mind. Everything she has ever taught me is racing through my head; “Never take your hands off the wheel when you are driving. If your hands are off the wheel who is going to be in control?”. I centre the car towards the skunk. I’m thinking, praying that my car might have the clearance under it to sail right over without touching it. The car’s headlights are shining directly on it. 3 seconds until impact. I glance over at Chantal and see her eyes pinned to the road. 2 seconds; I lower my right foot on the brakes quickly. One second; there is no turning back now. The car sails over the small animal at 60 kilometres an hour. “Thunk thunk”, is all we heard. She had to buy a Cavalier.

“Pull over Amanda. Pull over”, Steve says from the backseat. Chantal puts her hand on my knee to encourage me to pull over. “Oh my God”, was all I could say. I put on my signal and pull over to the gravel shoulder, rocks hitting the undercarriage of the vehicle. Once I finally come to a stop, I put the car in park and lean back in my seat. Rubbing my hands over my face, I turn and look at my two friends that look just as shocked as I do. “Is everyone okay?”, I ask. It’s the only think I can think of at the moment. “Yea we are totally fine. How about you?”, Chantal asks. I cannot believe it just hit a skunk! Am I okay? I still have my hands over my face when Steve leans over the seat. I thought I would be crying at this point. Instead, I lower my hands and look at the two faces staring at me with concern. “Yea, I’m alright”, I finally said. Two smiles of relief wash over their faces as well as mine. I’m just glad that everyone is alright. “I’m sorry guys”, was all I could summon to say. “Why are you apologizing? You did the right thing hun”, Steve said. “We would have done the same thing. It was a squishable after all”. “Agreed”, Chantal says with a grin. A wave of relief washes over me, not only because everyone is safe, but because they know I didn’t want to do it, I had to. Just then another wave hits me, but its not an emotion. It’s a smell. All three of us look at each other and wrinkle our noses. “Let’s get out of here!”, Chantal squeals. I throw the car into drive, signal and continue our journey to Silver Harbour with a story to tell our friends and going the speed limit.

I learned a lot that night. I learned about driving and how the unexpected happends. My mom always says “expect the unexpected and prepare for the unaware”. I never understood it until this night.