Buck

My parents were here for a quick visit this weekend, and we wanted to give them the full Evan experience. They had requested to take him to the mall to pick out a toy, and who are we to refuse? So Saturday, after a delicious late breakfast of pancakes and eggs, we piled into the Jeep to head to the mall.

It was a gray, rainy day, but we were all cheerful. Evan played with his cowboy duck and the adults discussed a contestant on "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader" who thought vowel was spelled "voul". Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but had there been a soundtrack to our day, ominous music would have been dubbed behind our idle chatter. Because not too far from our house, on a residential street- one minute I was looking back to see the cute thing Evan was doing, and the next I was watching a huge buck slam into the side of the car.

I will never forget his huge eyes staring at me as his antlers smashed into the car. The sickening thud of impact is always enough to send my heart racing. There was screaming and crying and flying glass. The buck was stunned for an instant, but then ran off into the distance. We pulled over to assess the damage. Evan was crying, but besides a few pieces of glass in his hair that were easily brushed out, he was fine. My mom, who was sitting in the seat where the impact occured, had thankfully been looking at Evan when the buck hit us, so the glass hit her neck instead of her face.

Surprisingly, the two cars behind us made no effort to stop and see if we were okay. I am still a little bothered by this. But we were fine, the car was just full of glass. The buck's antlers shattered the small window on the rear door, and we have huge dents and scrapes on the side of the car. Chris and my dad took the car back to the house to clean out the glass, and my mom, Evan and I waited in the lobby of a nearby nursing home.

Evan had a blast banging on the piano, climbing the stairs, and pushing his stroller up and down the halls. My mom was able to get a wet towel to get the stray shards of glass off her neck, and I was so occupied with watching Evan that I barely had time to process the event. It is only now as I sit and type this that I start thinking of the what-ifs.

What if my mom hadn't been looking at Evan? What if my mom hadn't been in the car at all? What if we had been going faster? What if he had hit the main window instead of the small one?
But I thank God that we are all okay, and I know he was watching us in that moment.

I am sure it is going to be a hassle to get the car fixed, but it is just a car. We are all okay, and that is what really matters. I am told that I am now officially and Iowan, since we have had a collision with a deer. Frankly, I could have done without the designation.