Another Deer in the Headlights

Night Driving.

[Adam's Point of View]

6.15pm.

Dusk was just about beginning to settle over Owatonna, bringing along with it a bitter northerly gale straight from the frozen heart of Canada not 100 miles north of town. It was the kind of unforgiving chill in the air that indicated a long autumn was drawing to an end, soon to be replaced by its much burlier winter brother to ice the roads and numb your toes. 

Just what I wanted....

I clenched my fists a little tighter to the leather-bound steering wheel in my hands as the cold bit straight through me. The beat-up pickup I was slung in hadn't quite got its engine up to temperature for the sleepy heating system to be of any use right now. I silently cursed my luck as I longed for the warmth I knew the second-hand heater could provide.

My impatience wasn't really justified if I was being honest, I'd only just set foot in the car after a long day's work. More than glad to be on the road and on my way back home for the weekend. Though of course, I still wasn't all too pleased about being cold...

Miles of road passed me by in the next half hour, all of it the same dull and uninteresting strip of road, dotted every now and then by the bright illuminations of flamboyant roadside gas stations and the sweeping motion of oncoming cars as their headlights momentarily dazzled me.

Night driving was my favourite.

Relaxed and stress free. Just me and the old 86' Chevy which was happily eating up the sub-zero tarmac I allowed it pasture on.

It was the simple things like this in life that made it just that bit more bearable: the gorgeous dusky Minnesotan countryside visible from every angle of the car, the now cosy warmth I could feel gradually filling the Chevy from the reawakened heater. Not to mention my personal favourite aspect of driving: The steady purr of the pickups 5 Litre V8 engine less than a metre from my feet. Its bass tone was really quite fascinating, bulky, yet surprising uniform with every revolution the pistons inside made.

I allowed a smile to touch my lips as I realised how easy it was to be lulled by the steady, reliable tone. I made a mental note to try and replicate the oddly soothing quality of the car's engine when I'd eventually get home.

I'm a musician you see.

Or at least that's what I'd like to think.

It's more of a side hobby than anything else- an incredibly time consuming one I'll be honest. One which doesn't pay the bills and one which my workmates poke more than enough fun at me for. Not many people really see it's potential.

I suppose looking at me, Adam Young: a lanky 22 year old Minnesotan with floppy chestnut hair across his forehead and shifty brown eyes to match, a tall yet almost gangly frame, hardly a dime to his name and with a fair amount of introversion to boot, you wouldn't exactly see too much in that.

Did I mention the insomnia too?

The music doesn't help that. As of late I've been awake for more than my fair share of sleepless 4am's working on God knows how many different tracks and sequences to fuel my passion for music. It's really no wonder that work exhausts me so much when most days I'm surviving on a meagre 3 or 4 hours of sleep, battling just to stay awake and somewhat alert as I partake in the daily grind of stacking innumerable pallets of Coca-Cola cans and bottles soon to be distributed across the entirety of the state.

You can imagine how it was no small relief to be on my way home from one such painful shift, finally pulling the car up onto the paved driveway of my house and tiredly getting out.

Well, my parents' house-

Still working on making that dime to my name I guess.

[Important information!]

What is this? Another?!

Yes.

What are all these deer doing in headlights?

I know.

Bare with me, I know, it's been a while.

I believe a fond greeting is due to you all, I haven't posted any kind of story here in what must be months- I'm incredibly sorry for that, to you all. Life gets in the way and this account suffered because of it, I haven't had motivation to write in so long but hopefully that's beginning to turn round now.

So, getting to the point. Another Deer in the Headlights?? Yes! I hope you all like the very creative title, 10 points to Gryffindor! Seriously though, why is this a thing?

Well, a few months ago I was checking back on Wattpad and reading over the original DITH a little bit, quite frankly I'm not happy with how I originally wrote the story back in 2013. Not enough detail, character description, depiction of scenes, the list goes on I was nit-picking hard ok.

All this story will be is a rewrite, pure and simple, cut clean and precise like a slice of pie. The original will be left up, don't worry! This will just be taking a bit more centre stage for the meantime. I'm hoping to add a lot more creative flare and depth to each chapter, no more rushing and no more half-hearted attempts.

I really hope you all enjoy this revitalized attempt at a hopefully old favourite. Here's to many more deer in headlights.

~ Em.

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