I left work late last night - delayed by one little undone thing after another.
I probably would have stayed later, but after carting a big old TV up
to the second floor, I was absolutely finished.
My nightly drive was mostly dedicated to the rueful realization that I am not
as strong as I used to be. The TV had been left sitting on the landing between two
steep flights of stairs and when I first picked it up, I nearly fell backward down flight one.
Because I had an audience, ego (and maybe a miracle) propelled me forward – but it
was a humbling wake up call I was compelled to replay again and again as I hauled
my middle-aged ass toward home.
Out here in the boondocks, most people are in bed by the time I get off work and, as usual,
I was the only driver on the road. Gliding along, nursing my psychic wounds, I had made it
about halfway through denial and was headed toward humility when a white car blew past me doing an easy 100 mph. The driver appeared to turn and look at me before abruptly fishtailing back in front of me and pulling away. I had time to think – shit, where’s a cop when you need one? - and magically, flashing lights appeared in my rearview mirror.
Slowing down and moving to the side of the road, I expected the cruiser to sail past me,
but instead it pulled behing me, hanging there for an oddly long moment. So I hit the
shoulder of the road and came to a full stop - just in time for the to cop rev up his engine
and blast around me (making that the third time in one night that something like my life
flashed before my eyes).
There are numerous curves near the end of my road home, and as I moved back onto the highway I tried to keep my route firmly in mind: okay now, big lazy curve, wide left turn lane, big curve, little curve and I’m basically home. I could still see the taillights of the speeding car – we were hitting the curves and straight-aways at the same time – but the cop had disappeared. Or so I thought until I came to the wide left turn…where the cop had slowed and was obviously debating whether to turn off or go straight. I flicked my lights numerous times, he pulled toward me and before I knew what I was doing, I found myself driving 45 down the middle of the road, shouting through the open passenger window of the cop car driving along next to me.
The cop was hollering something I couldn't make out, I was yelling, “THAT WAY! THAT WAY! THAT WAY!” and pointing out my window like a madwoman, and then… it was over.
The cop screamed off into the night, silence returned and I headed up the road toward home.
Sitting in my silent driveway, a little shaken and glad to be home, I noticed my daughter’s car was gone. Intending to use my story as a dire warning about the dangers of late night driving, I picked up my cell phone to call her. But before I could pull up her number, my phone rang and it was my daughter on the line with a story of her own.
She too had been heading home, coming down the other major highway that runs from town to our neck of the woods. She too had been ruminating, mostly about her current state of poverty. Just as she thought, “I need to be careful – if I got a ticket right now, I’d be screwed.” a cop pulled up behind her, lights flashing, and followed her for a while. She too pulled over – even though she had not been speeding – but as she slowed to a stop, the cop roared around her and took off into the night.

I did not sleep for a long while, wondering what messages to take from these strange, parallel experiences. Watch out – but for what?
Remember all you mothers of daughters - whatever our story, they will have one of their own?
Be vigilant, be careful – we are all connected and taking the same trip through the darkness,
all subject to the strange and the unexpected?

I have no answers, but I'm open to suggestions again,
and I hope I stay that way.


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