A ride

It doesn't take much to mess with the human mind. A whisper of a rumour becomes a devastating event. A whisper of air becomes a ghost. A whisper in the ear becomes a creeper. Anyways you get my point. Sometimes there doesn't have to be even a whisper of something before it becomes a real fear. Just potential can wreak havoc on my mind.

For example. Sunday night I was driving home from my boyfriends house, because we're having a long distance relationship it takes about an hour and a half to an hour and forty-five minutes to get from where I live to his house and back. 70% of the trip is through beautiful rural areas of Georgia. It's fall and the leaves are spattered yellow and red along the hills that follow the road. Signs advertise jams and fresh harvest vegetables in little shacks. I always enjoy the ride down.

At night though the trip turn into something of an entirely different nature. During fall and winter the homeward bound trip is taken after the sun has set so the bounds of my vision are confined to my headlights, the moon, and the light provided by other cars. The peaceful landscape is transformed into a Tim Burton set compete with arching reaching trees, bent scarecrows, and fog that laps in waves against the side of the car.

While the logical fear in these surroundings include deer and other wandering animals, other drivers, and car problems, my fears are confined to one thing- Skunk Ape.

Laugh if you like at my ignorance but in surroundings like those it seems completely plausible for a huge country-fried Sasquatch wander around the woods, walking out in front of unsuspecting cars.

Around every corner I expected to see one of these creatures. Yes, I realize most sightings were near the southern swamps but I don't like being unprepared.

My mind drifted to what was I to do if I accidentally hit a Skunk Ape? Does my insurance cover cryptozooalogical critters? Would I report it at all and just try and blame it on a bear in order to protect the species? Or would I report it and help create a grassroots protection movement for it? The possibilities really were endless.

I have yet to see a Skunk Ape. I do not even know if they really exist. What I do know is that next time I'm driving home alone on a moonless November night I'll make a playlist to keep my mind off all those possibilities.