Roadkill

                Sarah slammed on her brakes and her car skidded to a screeching hard stop. The seatbelt tightened against her chest and she immediately knew she’d have a long bruise. She cursed to herself. The racoon or opossum or whatever it was that ran across the road had scared her half to death. She was pretty sure she hit the poor damn thing, whatever it was. She felt the sickening thump through her steering wheel before slamming on her brakes.  She felt the soft yet solid thud shudder through her arms. She imagined that poor furry bastard, crushed beneath her tires.  She didn’t want to get out. The quiet country road was dark and it was simply too scary. The trees overhead, slowly dropping their Autumn leaves onto the road played odd tricks in her car’s headlights.  

                She had to get out of her car though. She had to make sure the poor damn critter wasn’t still alive. She hoped it wasn’t stuck under her tire or that its entrails were all wrapped up around the axel or whatever innards do when a car hits an animal at 65 miles per hour. She just wanted to get up to Kenny’s cottage and enjoy a nice fall vacation, even if it was just for a few days. She just didn’t feel like she had the time to deal with some unlucky mammal that chose the wrong time to make a break for it across the road.

                Her car door opened slowly as Sarah peeked into the rear-view mirror. She didn’t see any other cars coming from behind her. She opened the door all the way and unlocked her seat belt. She stepped up and out of the car onto the dark road. It was silent. The early fall seemed to have silenced any of the normal insect sounds you’d expect to hear in the country. The only sound was the ticking noise of her car’s engine and the skittering of leaves being blown across the road. Sarah moved towards the front of her car and looked around the driver’s side front tire. She didn’t see anything. She didn’t see any fur or blood. She thought that maybe she missed the critter. Although she was certain she had felt the thump of its body resonate through the steering wheel.

                Sarah moved to the front of her car and squinted against the brightness of her headlights. She couldn’t really see if there was anything stuck in the grille or under the front bumper. It was too silhouetted by the headlights. She remembered she had a flashlight in her glovebox and she went back to the driver’s side to see if she could retrieve it. The flashlight had probably been in the glovebox since she bought the car. He father insisted she always have a flashlight in the car. She never used it. It had been in the car for seven years. She didn’t even know if it would work. She wondered if batteries even could last seven years. She wondered why batteries didn’t last longer and why science could make an erection last four hours for a man but couldn’t make damn decent battery. She told herself to remember that line for later. Kenny would get a laugh out of it.

                She leaned back into her car and over to the glovebox. She thought it was odd that it was still called a glovebox. She thought about the antique cars and wondered if the fancy ladies of the past would actually put real gloves in the glovebox. She rummaged through the glovebox until she found the small LED flashlight. She flicked it on and a bright beam lit up her face. The brightness of the flashlight startled her and she let out an annoyed gasp and a quick god damn it. She was happy the flashlight still worked. Kudos to you scientists. Thanks for not spending all that research money on dick medications she thought.

                She got back out of her car and moved to the front and shined the light onto the grille. She didn’t see any blood or fur, no marks at all. She quickly checked the right front tire, but she was sure she felt the thud on the left side. Nothing there at all. She moved to the rear of the car and check the rear right tire and found nothing. She went around the back of the vehicle and checked under the rear left tire. Nothing.

                She stood up from her crouch and then shone the light down the dark road behind her. She scanned the asphalt for any signs of an injured or furry lump in the road. She didn’t see anything at all. The road seemed clear except for the damn leaves blowing around. She clicked the small LED flashlight off and started back to the driver’s side. She did another quick check before she stepped in. She didn’t see anything at all. She got back into the car. She put back on her seatbelt. She had been so sure that something, some crazy thing, had darted out in front of her car and she was so sure that she had made contact with it. She shook her head and decided that if she did hit it, she must have only grazed it and it had made it to the woods. She hoped it was okay. Whatever it was.

                “Poor thing,” she said aloud as she closed the driver’s side door, “Poor critter.”

                Sarah put the car into drive and started moving forward again. Kenny would sure get a kick out this story though. He’d probably taunt her all weekend about the phantom critter and do all sorts of stupid and immature things about it. Sarah considered not telling him about it. She was wondering about their two-year relationship as it was. Was he really the one for her or was she just biding her time she thought. She started to accelerate along the dark road and her eyes were scanning the road carefully. She didn’t want to have to do that again if she could avoid it.

                A thumping sound started with each rotation of the tire. A fast thud as the tire rolled over the smooth country road. Sarah cursed. She didn’t check under the wheel-well or the fenders. The damn vermin could have been lodged up there and now its poor little corpse was thumping against the tire. Sarah slowed her car down and the thumping slowed. “Damn it,” she said and she pulled the car over toward the thin shoulder on the right.  She stopped the car and threw off her seatbelt. She was annoyed now. At first, she felt really bad about the little animal, now it was an irritant. She just wanted to get to Kenny’s damn cottage.

                She opened the driver’s side door and grabbed the LED flashlight again. She closed her driver’s side door behind her. She stepped onto the dark road again and shined the light onto the front left tire. She didn’t see anything dangling or blood smears, no clumps of fur or anything sticking to the tire. She had to bend down, then crouch down close to inspect the tire, to look up under the fender. She couldn’t see anything up there. She looked back down the road to her right. There were no signs of any approaching cars, no headlights swinging down the dark road. Sarah lay down on the road by the front left tire and shined the light. She was looking up at the wheel-well when she heard something. Something large seemed to be approaching.

                “What the hell was that,” said Kenny as he sped down the dark country road. He’d felt something thud and the whole car shuddered; almost leapt up. He had been looking down at his phone, trying to text Sarah that he was running late and he hadn’t made it to the cottage yet. He dropped his phone when that huge thud happened. He was still reaching down for it as he cursed. He finally grasped it down by his left foot. He looked up at the long dark country road.  He didn’t even really want to go to the cottage this weekend, but he promised her that they’d go and this was their first weekend they could both get away. He was starting to wonder about Sarah, if maybe she was just not as important to him as she was when they first met. Kenny’s car seemed out of alignment and was now shuddering badly. “Crap,” he said, “god damn roadkill.”