Who am I?

Alice clutches the steering wheel of her Hummer as she peers out at the Highway speeding beneath her wheels. Yes, she is sure-almost sure, she is perfectly safe in the Hummer. She lists in her head all the reasons why the Hummer is the safest car for her: It has automatic transmission-no need to worry about changing gears when there is traffic. It has a framework of steel-or something even stronger than steel-whatever that framework is made of-it is built like a tank. Yes, a tank. In this day and age, all women need a tank to drive around in-to feel safe, to feel really safe. Should anybody-and there were lots of crazy people on the roads now-should anybody crash into her, this framework of extremely strong metal-would protect her from being horribly injured. Then, the beauty of four-wheel drive! Should there be any kind of severe weather-snow, ice, blizzards, -she could drive through them all without hesitation, without fear, because the four wheel drive would give her traction on those awful treacherous surfaces at all times. Should she-heaven forbid-have to drive off road for any reason-to evade a stalker- (Alice glances up to look into her rear mirror. Her eyes narrow. Was that red car the same one she had seen back in Raleigh, an hour ago?)-The Hummer could drive off-road as easily as driving on the Highway.Yes; it could scale mountains, ford fiords and circumnavigate ravines. Her headlights, with the extra headlights mounted on the top of the roof racks, plus the fog lights (-don’t forget the four fog lights) could light up the night sky brighter than the brightest sunniest day, in summer. So there is no problem driving at nights, in the dark-no problem whatsoever.
Yes, yes, she is safe-as safe as she can be, given the state of the World as it is, now.
Her exit is coming up.
She thinks she might go off one exit early just in case-just in case the car behind her-the red one, has been following her. She does n’t want to lead the perpetrator to her door-right to her home- so she is going to swing through a gas station first, pretend to buy gas and see if the car follows her off the exit.
Off she goes-off the exit-into the gas station-oh no, this looks like a very bad station, the kind of place where people scatter nails and sharp things on the ground deliberately to try cause punctures and breakdowns…Luckily the wheels of her Hummer are set so high off the ground and are so tough, they are practically indestructible. She pulls into a parking space in the gas station. A little red car pulls in right beside her. Alice reaches down into her glove box and pulls out her nice, dependable colt 38.

by Jacqui Mehring