This morning started at the usual time, around 6:00 AM, but not in the usual manner.
Last night the wife’s blood sugar was out of control. It was off the scale at the high end, so much that her glucometer wouldn’t register it. She took some insulin, which brought it down to 517. After talking with a nurse on her insurance company’s health line, it was recommended that she go to the ER. I got her in the car ad took her over. Once there, the wife insisted I go home and get some rest. Since I’m badly sleep-deprived I complied.
Just after I woke up, I got a phone call from the wife saying she was being released from the ER. I hopped in the car and left to retrieve her.
The sun wasn’t quite yet up over the horizon and much of the area was still quiet. Not many other cars on the road around me. In all, a nice, peaceful morning.
The road to the ER is a divided highway, two lanes going in each direction. A median divides the two sections, and this time of year it has a foot or two of grass in it. I imagine the county will be cutting it soon.
There’s a downward slope to one section as you head toward the ER. I was at the top of that ad just started my descent. I could see a car on the other side of the road stopped in the middle of the highway. It flashed its lights at me so I slowed down a little, wondering if there might be a police cruiser hiding somewhere nearby.
Then I saw it. A beautiful doe was crossing the highway. The other car had stopped so she could pass. I was still a good distance away and I slowed down some but didn’t stop. She was going to be well across the road by the time I got there. Sure enough, she was across and disappeared into the woods near the side of the highway.
The car on the other side of the highway still didn’t move. It just sat there. I wondered why it didn’t drive on but figured it was the driver’s decision to move on or not. Finally it started moving forward again.
Then I saw why it had stopped. The tiniest fawn I’ve ever seen stepped out of the grass onto the road in front of me. It blended so well into the grass it was as if it appeared by magic. And I was barreling down the road directly toward it.
Two fortunate thins happened. One was that the fawn stopped moving forward. The other was that there were no other cars around me.
I swerved the car so I was hallway into the other lane. The alarm that alerts you that you’re changing lanes without signaling started dinging at me. I missed the fawn.
I slowed down and looked in the rearview mirror after I passed by the fawn. It had been smart enough to step back into the grass as I was heading toward it. With no other cars around it stepped back out of the grass and headed off across the road to catch up with momma. This little one is going to be all right.
I breathed a small sigh of relief. Had I hit the fawn I’d be devastated. To kill something that small and beautiful would be anathema to me.
A few minutes later I picked up the wife from the ER. I kept thinking that, as a photographer, she would have loved a photo of the fawn. Maybe some day we’ll get a chance to snap a picture of it. But I hope not. I hope that little one goes a long way off, away from people, and has a good deer life.
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