After an exhausting, yet exhilarating two weeks of traveling
and attending conferences, I was headed home. My Southwest 737-700 series Boeing airplane landed in
Portland Maine just before midnight, but not before circling out over the dark
and deep North Atlantic on a cold, but not frigid winter’s night. Now that I’m
working in Portland, the 32 mile drive has become routine, and I tend to drive
quickly down the turnpike, often sharing the highway with a handful late night
drivers and the occasional truck hauling wood products to a their awaiting warm
southern destination. Flipping
between John Tesh’s radio show, Intelligence for Your Life, and First Wave satellite
radio, I realize I was tired, and raced home.
Exit 32 arrives and I step on the gas of my white 4-cylinder
Elantra, trying to catch the fleeting green light and pass through the
intersection to the route 1 connector and the back roads to my house. I don’t
see another car the rest of my drive.
With a half mile to go, I turn right onto my tree lined road, and pass
the darken
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| Into the Darkness Maine |
homes that are scattered acres apart, separated by woods and small
fields. No picket fences here. After
leaving the highway, I drive a little more causally, aware that critters, like
deer and the occasion moose, may suddenly appear in the road in front of me. Before reaching the driveway, my salt
covered headlights catch the slinky crawl of a small animal crossing the
road. It’s safely in the
other lane and just about to disappear into the forest, but I notice a
brilliant flash of white. I smiled to myself, knowing that the skunk and I
avoided a life altering collision.
