4 Things I Saw On A Late Night Drive
In the dark wilds of south east England, 8pm, Friday night, driving by myself, in order of appearance:
1. A deer. Just to my left in a trench by the roadside. It seemed happy enough, but was worried that it wasn’t (worried) as I drove by in otherwise total darkness at 50 miles per hour. I hoped it would be more scared of cars so it would live beyond its first year.
2. Rabbits. Two, large, probably looking for food for their young. If that’s what they do. Do they take food back to their young? Maybe if you’re a vegetarian non-human animal living in the wild, you could have it made. No cooking, no takeaways, you eat out every night. As I drove by and caught the rabbits in my headlines they looked at me like - um… I can’t think of an appropriate simile, but they looked like they were shocked, anyway. Truth be told, I was more surprised to see them, as these were the first rabbits of spring for me. From their perspective, they couldn’t have been shocked to see me. “Hey look, Thumper, a motorist on this black concrete thing. Fuck me.” “Is that all you think about, Fiver? It’s barely spring. The last thing we need is another mouth to feed.”
3. A fox. Beautiful bushy tailed and the kind of boardroom smile that is only with the mouth.
4. An ambulance, nine police cars, two fire engines (all with lights flashing) and about 30 emergency services personel cutting a driver and a passenger out of a overturned car which has hit a lorry on the overpass of a motorway.
Is this an anti-coincidence at work? A meaningful contrast of events on time? An, if you will, noincidence (snort). Or just a reminder that wherever you are, and whoever you are, it’s all and always going on.
March 27th, 2006 at 2:09 pm
The deer’s the vegetarian i tha tpicture. The bunnies, though funny, will eat anything. Though they mostly eat plants too.
The fox will eat the bunnies. And the concrete thing will eat you if you aren’t careful.
March 27th, 2006 at 9:05 pm
Do they? I didn’t know that! I thought they were herbivores.
I’m finding this driving thing a tad precarious these days because of the err livestock on it. Lovely to witness but fraught with a ‘will it… won’t it’ suspense as your foot hovers over the brake pedal!
Specially little baby rabbits! It’s so unjust to squoosh them accidentally when they’re on their first day of life!