As we ride through the pine barrens at night, answering the call of our friend once again, Lee tells me how to run over an animal.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one wants to slam into a deer or dog that darts into the road,\u201d says Lee, sitting shotgun and drinking coffee. He smells of cigarettes. \u201cBut sometimes you have no choice. Sometimes it\u2019s a matter of you or them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy are you telling me this?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cJust say you\u2019re on a two-lane road like this one, and swerving out of the way will send you into the opposite lane, straight into oncoming traffic. In a situation like that, you got no choice. You got to plow right ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n
Our friend said he wasn\u2019t feeling right, that he didn\u2019t trust himself to be alone. This isn\u2019t the first time he\u2019s called in a moment of crisis. We don\u2019t want to leave a man behind, so we go.<\/p>\n
Our friend lives way down in the muck of Jersey. Just twenty minutes earlier we were in the state\u2019s standard sprawl, but that petered out and now we\u2019re surrounded by dark forest, the kind of place you come to bury secrets. It\u2019s creepy. Animals on the side of the road watch you. Your headlights reflect in their eyes. Then there are the damn bugs and all their chirping. It\u2019s a whole other world hidden in the trees. \u201cI hate driving in here,\u201d I say. \u201cThere\u2019s always something about to jump in front of you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what I\u2019m talking about. You got to have the right mindset. Sometimes, the best course is to look straight ahead and drive.\u201d<\/p>\n
I think of my family back at the house. Thankfully, the kids were already asleep when the phone rang, but my wife didn\u2019t say a word when I hung up. What can I do, I told her. She just got up and walked away.<\/p>\n
My minivan\u2019s headlights catch a family of deer by the side of the road. They look up, frozen. I grip the wheel. \u201cYour brakes won\u2019t do any good,\u201d Lee tells me. \u201cThere\u2019s not enough time to stop. Better to keep going and not slow down.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy\u2019s he living out here? I got to be honest; I can\u2019t keep making this ride. I got a family now.\u201d<\/p>\n
From the opposite lane, a car comes at us. They forget to turn off their high beams, so for a moment, I\u2019m blinded. After their tail lights pass out of sight, nothing but dark fills my rear-view mirror.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019d do the same for us. Remember that time in Baltimore? He really stood up for us that day.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut do you think he\u2019s going to make it?\u201d<\/p>\n
Lee doesn’t say anything for a moment. \u201cHonestly? I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
We come up on more deer. I look straight ahead, keep two hands on the wheel, and accelerate. Soon they\u2019re behind us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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