Just Playing Possum

A little brown ball of fur scampered across the road. I slowed down, squinting into the headlights thinking Oh! Is that our cat? What’s she doing all the way over here, I wonder.



I watched the furry thing dash off into the wood line, and just as suddenly as it appeared and disappeared, a second thing came running across the road in a mad dash. I had no time to swerve or stop or … anything!

If I didn’t know any better, I could’ve sworn my eyes closed instinctively for the splittest of seconds as a sickening thud sounded beneath my car.

“Oh no!” I covered my mouth. “No. I didn’t …”

All three of the girls asked, “What was that?!” in unison. I drove a little bit further down the road and then turned around. I don’t know why I thought it would make me feel better, but I had to turn around and see if maybe, hopefully I hadn’t really hit the poor thing.

“Oh Kenna, look.” I wailed, hunching over the steering wheel.

“A raccoon? Really, you’re freaking out for a raccoon.” She didn’t seem terribly bothered over the fact I had indeed played part of murderer. Here I am feeling terrible about what I’d just done and she’s blowing it off like its no big deal.

“Well maybe,” she leaned over looking like she was about to reason with me. “Yeah! They play dead like possums, ya know?”

“No they don’t!” I shrieked, stopping the car completely. I held my breath waiting for it to get up and move. I was sadly disappointed when it’s little body rose up and down in hard quick motions and then it ever so slowly rolled over with its paws in the air. That was it
That really did it. It pulled every last heartstring I had. I felt like a loser.

“Ohhhh girls, I really did kill it.”

“Yeah, well …” Elaina shrugged her shoulders in the backseat. “I guess we can just turn around again and wait for it to get up. Or die.”

Smart tail. Like I’m going to do that. “No! I don’t wanna know if it’s really dead. Maybe we should get daddy to come back and put it out of it’s misery or something.”

“It’s dead, it’s dead. You really killed it. How could you?!!!!!” Abs covered her mouth in mock disbelief. She thought the whole thing was funny too. What was with these people? Had they no heart?

“Shutup, Abigail.” Kenna and I snapped at the same time, then I added. “I feel bad enough, thanks.”



So my little happy-go-lucky drive home from church only turned into epic failure. Nice.

We only stuck around for a few more minutes, just long enough to watch the thing sort of revive itself and leave me semi-happily wondering hoping that just maybe … raccoons really did play possum too. ;)



The moment we got home and started walking toward the house, Mckenna grabbed my arm and said, "Look, Brit!"

I glance up at the night sky for a moment, wondering what she's pointing to. The sky is a gorgeous shade of dark blue, making the stars sparkle especially bright. "Oh yeah, it's really something."

"A star just went up to heaven for your little raccoon buddy. Hahaha!"

I look back at her, laughing. "Dork face."

"Yeah. Yeah. What? I'm trying to make you feel better." She grinned back.

So I've no idea if it lived or died. It wasn't in the road the next day but you never know if it just crawled its way off the road and died in some ditch. Least I've got such an awesome sister to teach me about such things as raccoons playing possum, hmm? ;)