Deer in the Headlights
So, at about 11:30 last night I was driving home from work at the theater and I wasn’t really paying attention to the road (surprise, surprise). As I veer off the highway for my exit, singing Ben Folds at the top of my lungs, I very slowly process that there are two huge deer just hanging out right in the middle of the road. As my headlights came around the curve and stared them straight in the eyes, they didn’t move a muscle. I slammed on my brakes and suddenly the stuff in my car is flying all over the place and all I can hear is a piercing screech. In all of the commotion, one of the deer swiftly ran off into the woods. But the other one stayed right where she was, middle of the road, eyes glued to me. After I came to a complete stop, I stared at her and she back at me — almost defiantly — for what felt like forever, but couldn’t have been more than a couple of seconds.
Then she slowly sauntered off the road and into the woods without a glance back at me.
I was really shaken by all of this and it took me a few moments to catch my breath and calm down. It’s not often you get to see a phrase like “deer in the headlights” in action, and it was exactly as I imagined it would be. She sees me barreling toward her and can’t even move one hoof in front of the other to get out of harms way. I know this is weird, but I’ve felt like that a lot lately. You can see trouble coming, know that it’s bad news and you shouldn’t get involved, but you can’t stop yourself. You can’t save yourself. Basically, I need to work on my reflexes. Because right now I should be running as far away as I can. But I am still rooted to this spot, caught in the headlights.
