Heather-mobile

The other night I braved the elements and walked to the gas station.  I had to take the gravel shortcut as time was of the essence.  My arrival time had to be within 15 minutes or I would be out of luck.  The only sources of light I could conjure up were my son's toy Craftsman flashlight and my penlight, so I went with the penlight.  As I approached the more wooded area, I noticed a couple of deer up ahead.  Now I had anticipated skunks being my main enemy, so when I saw deer my initial reaction was, 'Oh cute, look at that'.  Before I knew it, one took off, but the other one, by the awful sound it kept making, either wanted to mate with me or charge me.  I froze in my tracks, not sure what to do next...

 Now keep in mind, I don't come from a long line of hunters. When I think of a man being out in the wild and putting food on the table, the only thing I can invision is the time my dad found a can of peas on the side of the road and brought them home for lunch.  Anyway, we had a stare down and she finally went lickity split into the trees.  I saw this as my only opportunity to get to the other side.  I quickly put on my thinking cap and decided to pretend I was a car.  I pulled out my penlight and created the best car sound I could; throwing in a "beep beep" every now and then.  I figured in more cases than not, deer typically avoid cars, and hopefully for my sake, that would include ones with only one headlight.  Whether or not the wildlife was scared of the "Heather-mobile", or laughing at my expense, I will never know.   At any rate, I am happy to report my journey was a success.

I didn't necessarily have a moral to this story or any underlying messages.  I could go with the angle that cigarettes will kill you (thank you Kristy).  Or tie in the interesting part of taking shortcuts in life (thank you Annette).  Or even, the only thing to fear is fear itself (thank you Mary).  You can look at it however you please.  It is simply a not-so-surprising event that happened to me.  A time where the real me came out to play, where I didn't have to be afraid of looking stupid because I really didn't care.