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
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