A Simple Florida Trip Pt. 3

After learning the top speed of the van, we drained ourselves at a creepy bait shop wholly insistent on selling us the best worms this side of Kentucky. We walked backwards from the station, keeping our eyes of the John Deere hat wearing, buck toothed cashier, and were on the road again this time with my girlfriend driving. I had slipped into the passenger’s seat as to uphold the promised “it’s your job to make sure I don’t fall asleep at the wheel” promise we had all made. Taya lay asleep in the back, holding onto her aching tooth that had suddenly made an appearance. Skipping a dentists appointment days before the trip to Florida had not been a wise choice. The evening was quickly becoming dark, as the problem earlier had cost us the weaning daylight hours. After an hour and a half driving the light had been completely extinguished from the night sky. Our tiny headlights poked out from the lonely freeway. The only other vehicle was a distance in front of us. In order to make up on time lost during the car crash, Oriana pressed down on the pedal. 1

I warned Oriana that in the dead of night like this it would be near impossible to see if there were any cops up ahead. She assured me that this was not likely to occur, as we hadn’t seen one cop during the day, why would a cop want to be out during the middle of the night? 2

The cop was waiting for us up ahead. Sensing someone was saying something ironic; he had quickly pulled off to the side of the road and turned off his lights. His mustache tickled his nose as he breathed in heavily, waiting. As we passed his radar gun read 15 over the speed limit of 70, he flashed on his siren and pulled out of his hiding place in-between two trees that grew on the median. The chase after our Florida license plate was not long, as we had no reason to flee a long distance from him.3

I tried to calm my girlfriend down. Earlier in the year I had been treated to anecdotes of her bursting into tears every time a cop pulled her over. Such a scene might have worked in Minnesota, but this was Illinois, and no more a bad ass state had been created. We pulled to the side of the road; Oriana took in long deep breaths, pushing her chest outward and inward mechanically. She stared straight ahead and rolled down her window when the cop approached.4

“You have any idea how fast you were going ma'am?”5

He went through the regular rigmarole and handed Oriana a ticket. I watched her brim on the edge of, yet somehow manage to hold in her tears. As we pulled away from the officer, leaving him far behind us, I patted her leg. I told her what a good job she had done keeping it together. Trying to lighten the mood I remarked on the police officer, and how he had still been wearing sunglasses although it had been the middle night. We all relaxed and laughed at the demon cop. Oriana swore that she would maintain the speed limit for the rest of the trip, not wanting to receive another ticket. We settled into the rest of the trip ahead of us, sure to be relaxing if not somewhat tiring. I gazed through the side window, looking at the road signs tumble past us. Ahead I see a sign labeled Vienna, a speed limit sign, a mile marker, two little moving dots, reflectors on the road. Two little moving dots? 6

Time is a tricky idea. On one hand, in an emergency situation it both speeds up, enabling one to not be able to stop actions, and on the other hand it also allows one to view everything in slow motion so one can really take everything in. The two floating dots in the distance are eyes belonging to a deer. He paused when he saw the headlights. I turn and made a comment to Oriana about the deer, thinking nothing of it, because after all it has already seen the headlights and had frozen on the side of the road. Little did I know the deer was not frozen, it was biding its time, waiting for the perfect opportunity to7

The deer leapt out in front of the van. Oriana had no time to stop and turn or apply the break. There was a quick jolt to the car as 4000lbs and 65 mph of force projected itself onto the muscular hide of the animal. Steam shot up from the front of the van, blinding us momentarily. Through the left windows we saw the remnants of the deer pinwheel into the ditch between the two roads. The calm demeanor Oriana was able to hold earlier shattered, she screamed and swerved the car to the left, tears welling up and running down her face. I reached over, my hands making an audible smack on the side of the wheel as I wrestled it from Oriana grasp. 8

“Calm down… calm down…” I had leaned over, my forehead touching her temple and was whispering into her ear. She released her foot from the pedal and we rolled to a stop on the side of the road. After the usual exchanges of well being, and Taya complaining of her tooth, we stepped outside to examine the damage. It seemed as though there was minimal damage. Only a few small smatterings of blood and bits of burnt hair hung to our bent hood and grill. A small amount of steam was still pouring out of the front, but didn’t seem to be the cause for any major worry. I called my parents, the all knowing source of escape for any situation. They had a simple solution: Drive to the nearest town and look for a mechanic. It seemed easy enough, so I entered the driver’s seat and started the slow ascent towards the nearest town. We turned on the navigation DVD. It turned out the nearest town was still five miles away. This was going to pose a problem as every time I pressed down on the gas to accelerate the check engine light would blink on. “We can make it. We can make it” I reassured everyone in the van, although this exercise was selfishly designed toward calming my own fear. 9

A light flashed up ahead, blue then red, blue then red. As we ascended over a small hill the light grew brighter. A spotlight was held onto the license plate of a red van occupied by a middle aged man. I thanked the lord that this man had been caught speeding, his broken law was to be our savior. I pulled the van behind the cop car, opened my door and walked over to the officer waiting inside.10