I've been very busy this week. Which is to say, I have a lot of responsibilities and the emotional weight of putting them off has really been stressing me out. Today I woke up at 11:45 am and ate delivery for lunch. I paced around my room, went on the Internet, and considered napping. A headache set in at about 3:00 pm, helpfully accompanied by a fog which made everything seem suitably gloomy. Also around that time, I texted my dad to please pick me up at 6:30 pm so I could eat dinner at home. The headache persisted, got worse and worse. I couldn't focus and tried and failed to finish some light homework. Drank a lot of weak green tea but still felt very dehydrated and agitated.
My father arrived at 6:30 on the dot in our SUV. This SUV was a purchase that my dad decided on and which my mom has always mildly resented. It's a dull beige color and has very comfortable seats. Outside, it was almost completely dark, and with the fog still thick around us the world felt very small and quiet. Typically my dad speaks to me very little but on this drive he asked me about an event I attended yesterday. We talked for a few minutes and then fell silent, although not awkwardly. Usually on these drives back home he has me drive so I get some practice - my driving skills are a subject of great distress in my household - but not today, because of the fog. It was peaceful; the road from my university back to my house is pretty backwoods. Chopin played on the car speakers.
A deer rushed at the car. I screamed in the panic. It slammed against the front bumper and fell backwards, spinning with the impact. The spinning is what I remember; it gave the death a nauseatingly comical air. And the deer was small, most likely born that spring.
We continued to drive for a few yards until we could pull over and inspect the damage. By that point the deer was no longer in sight. My headache was mostly alleviated. The car seemed completely intact (we later found some hairline cracks on the grill, as well as a few deer hairs stuck against the bumper). As we drove home I thought, trying to emotionally reconcile this event with the rest of my day. On the rest of the way, Chopin's Concerto No. 1 in E Minor, Op. 11 - Romance, piano solo, played.
When we arrived at my house a few minutes later my mother came to inspect the damage, railing at my father for taking the SUV - she preferred he drive our older car as it was already old enough to not really be worth repairing. The food burned on the stove while we were outside looking at the car. I sat down to write the first half of this piece. At dinner, I choked on a fish bone, which lifted my headache entirely.