The Cleaveland Coyote's car spins on the highway and he is relieved when he manages to bring it under control before it smashes into the concrete median.
His relief is quickly tempered, however, when he looks up and sees a row of headlights coming towards him, dancing in the heavy raindrops that pour down upon the road.
Wrong way! He's facing the wrong way. He jams his foot on the gas, turns the wheel, and shoots straight across the highway to the berm where he pulls over safely as a chorus of automobile horns wail at him as they pass.
Heart pounding, The Coyote leans forward and rests his head on the steering wheel. He thinks back to how he got here and realizes it's sort of blurry.
"Just like the car windows," he thinks. He remembers being angry. Someone drove rudely and nearly hit him as he was getting on the highway. It was raining; he wasn't going that slowly. He just had to drive safely. There was not only himself to think of, but others to think of such as Masani or even his fellow drivers, but the driver passing him recklessly in the red S.U.V. probably wasn't even thinking of herself, or himself, whoever it was. Angered, The Coyote floored it and gave chase. He thought he'd give that driver a piece of his mind.
Instead, he nearly gave that driver a piece of his skull when the S.U.V. braked suddenly and, tailgating it, The Coyote had to steer wildly around it or crash. He hit a patch of water on the road near where I-90 runs close to Lake Eerie and started spinning.
The Coyote looks around. It is hard to see due to the heavy rain, but he doesn't see the S.U.V. anywhere around. He sighs and thanks God, or at least Thor, for his luck in avoiding an accident. Why was he so angry? People are rude constantly. It's the helplessness. He can't change them alone. He's starting to realize that, more and more, ever since he found the woman's corpse in the dumpster, and all he could do was call the police. He couldn't save the world like Superman. He wonders if Superman could even save it, or if the world wanted to be saved. Half the people around seem to have a deathwish, and, after his near disaster, he wonders if he has one too.
As he signals and slowly pulls back onto the highway, he wonders if he needs to be part of something bigger if he wants to change things in the world. He also doesn't trust his decisions as much as he used to. Almost getting in that wreck was as dumb a thing as anything he's complained about other people doing recently. If he had wrecked The Coyotemobile or gotten hurt, how would he have explained that to Masani? How could he have afforded a new car, or medical bills?
As he gets off at the nearest exit, happy to be off the highway, he decides that he needs a change, a lot of changes, in fact. No more Coyote. No more hiding in the house from the world. He doesn't have to go back to teaching, but it is time to start working again. With unemployment being what it is, he wonders where he can get a job.
He passes a billboard. It's an ad for the army.
He has an epiphany.
Masani's not going to like this though.
Blog Love Omega Glee is a novel by Wred Fright about two bloggers who fall in love while the world falls apart, which is being serialized on his blog. To start reading from the beginning or read another installment, please visit Blog Love Omega Glee Central on WredFright.Com. If you like what you've read, or you've read all of Blog Love Omega Glee and want more Fright, then please read his first novel.
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