The Fog

The fog was sitting on the grounds, cozy on a sofa, as though it were its home. As she kept trying to pierce it for better visibility, she was getting tired, also scared. She might be hit or hit someone. And the fog was steadily getting stronger and rendering her blinder. She was a combination of nerves, annoyance and impatience .

Two days back she was combating sleet and ice rain driving back home from work. She was driving for what seemed an eternity of plodding moving at a snail’s pace to avoid skidding on the slick unploughed roads with a two inch accumulation of wet ice. Besides, the heating coils on the rear windshield of her Corolla weren’t working. It was getting old like her. So she had no rear vision of  cars behind her. She drove out of habit and hoped for the best.

Today was no different. The fog didn’t need to be waiting for her now.  Wasn’t the stubborn ice enough of a bother already? But there she was having a dialogue with nature yet again and doing her best. Winter came with so much baggage if you had to navigate and drive at the same time. She would have loved to have been comfortably seated on her fireside recliner reading Maya Angelou with a steaming cup of hazelnut coffee. No complaints about that. But life was full of dodging the odds out in the open instead.

Suddenly her reverie was shattered. The impact was loud and painful. She couldn’t understand at first what the pain was, but gradually the fog in her mind cleared. A car had hit her from behind and her head had hit  the wheel. She could feel the numbness creeping in her hands and a searing pain like an electric shock all the way from the left side of the head down to the left shoulders. She could sense a wet trickle from the gash on the forehead now. Smelled of raw blood. Must be the fog that blinded the other driver.

Goodness! She hated all the fuss that would follow:  all the phone calls, the cops, the insurance details. She just wanted to be home in bed.

She saw a form emerge from the other car. As it approached the driver’s seat, she could see he was a lanky man walking a little unsteadily towards her.  Must be this awful fog that wasn’t helping him see clearly. And then she was struck by a lightning bolt. She could now see his face through the fog. How could you not?

“Neil, my sweetheart, it’s you?” She tried to stretch her hands out the window to touch his face. A blast of cold air assaulted her numb hands.

“ Oh my God, Mom, I’m so sorry. Are you hurt? You’re bleeding!”

“ Neil, I’ve always warned you about this, haven’t I?. Thank Goodness it was me.” She could smell his drunk breath. So familiar.

“Now listen to me sweetie. Just leave. Immediately. Go home to your girlfriend. She’s right round the corner. I know you always have the keys. Remember nothing happened this evening. Absolutely nothing happened. You and Amanda were home grooming the dogs.”

“ But Mom I need to take you to the ER.”

“No, you don’t need to do nothing of the sort unless you want your license revoked. Go to Amanda and sleep it off my darling.” Situations could notoriously cascade someplace remote way beyond control.

She shuddered at the thought of a DUI as she saw him recede in the fog and head out. It isn’t fair for a mother to be worrying so much all the time. It did something to your heart. She dreamed of her fireside comfort as she headed back, the pain now blinding her, not so much the fog.

She would have to touch base with Amanda once she was home. There was always so much on her plate.