THE TEXAS BUNNY INCIDENT
The white Prius with California plates pummeled through the night. 100mph, not a light to be seen for miles and miles. The Prius was engulfed in darkness, the only light coming from its headlights and the occasional lightning strike, illuminating that the desert they were driving through was surrounded by big black mountains.
The road had two lanes; one going West and one going East. A sign flew by at light speed that read “50 mi → San Antonio”. The girl in the passenger seat had her foot out the window, her anklet being flung about by the whipping wind, like hot breath sliding along the surface of the car. The girl driving turned up the volume, all the way.
Ride by Lana Del Rey emanated from the speakers, a tinny buzzing sound riding underneath it, as the speakers couldn’t quite handle the amplification.
“I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU JUST TOLD ME THAT STORY!” the girl in the driver’s seat yelled over the loud wind and stereo.
“WHY, ARE YOU SCARED?!” the girl in the passenger seat replied.
“LITTLE TOO CLOSE TO HOME, INGA. LITTLE TOO CLOSE TO HOME.”
Inga had just finished describing the plot of a movie in which a mother and daughter are driving late at night down the very same highway the girls were currently driving on. They came upon a dark vehicle in the middle of the night, blocking the entire road by sitting horizontally across the two lanes. The mother and daughter couldn’t pass, and before they knew it, men emerged from the parked car and pulled the mother and daughter out, violently kidnapping them.
“OH, C’MON WILLA, IT’S JUST A MOVIE!” Inga yelled. “BOO!” she added, holding her palms up on either side of her face with her fingers spread apart, as if playing peek-a-boo.
Willa shifted in her seat. It just felt too possible in that exact moment, for the same thing to happen to them. Especially since they had absolutely no service, and hadn’t for over an hour. The chorus of “Ride” was coming… The girls made waves with their forearms out the windows, getting ready to SCREAM:
“I HEAR THE BIRDS ON THE SUMMER BREEZE, I DRIVE FAST
I AM ALONE AT MIDNIGHT
BEEN TRYIN’ HARD NOT TO GET INTO TROUBLE, BUT I
I’VE GOT A WAR IN MIND…”
They sang the lyric “I’ve got a war in my mind" especially loudly.
“SO, I JUST RIIIIIIDE, JUST RIIIIIDE!
I JUST RIIIIDE, JUST RIIIIIDE!”
Suddenly, as if written by a screenwriter with a good sense of humor, an unidentified flying object came out of nowhere and flew underneath the front right wheel, causing the speedy little Prius to jump.
“WHAT WAS THAT!?” Inga yelled.
“IT’S FINE, IT’S FINE, IT’S FINE,” Willa slowed down quickly from 95 mph to 20. The car felt like it was lurching each time the wheel went around, and the girls heard a faint dragging sound underneath them.
“SHIT, WILLA!” Inga turned Lana off.
“I THINK THAT WAS A RABBIT!” Willa explained, shaking. “I KILLED IT.” Her eyebrows furrowed and her lips pursed. She completely stopped the car at this point, just right in the middle of the lane.
“Inga, I’m going to get out and look at the wheel.” She looked past Inga, out the passenger window and at the pitch blackness that surrounded them. She imagined a kidnapper lurking behind a desert bush, ready to grab her as soon as she bent down to inspect the car. Or she could find the mangled body of a jackrabbit attached to the car, as well, or a big paint streak of blood leading up to them.
If they had a flat tire, what would they do with no service? What would they do in the darkness, with no spare? Willa imagined herself and Inga sleeping in her white prius with California plates in the middle of Texas, completely vulnerable to whatever evil was lurking.
Upon inspection, she found that the car was seemingly okay. Having never killed an animal before, she felt sick to her stomach. There was some blood, but no rabbit. She replayed the moment the rabbit came flying out of nowhere, and remembered learning jackrabbits could run anywhere between 35 and 45 mph. It made her feel a bit better to know that there was no way she could have seen it coming.
Willa got back in the car and lit a cigarette. She turned around to check on all their shit in the back of the car; all their luggage and belongings were still intact. “Inga, can you put the music back on, please?” The shaky girls had to restart Ride, as they had not yet finished the song due to the incident.
“I've been out on that open road…
You can be my full time, daddy, white and gold” Lana moaned.
“You can’t make this shit up,” Inga said. They drove the rest of the way to Marfa slowly, carefully. Still playing the entire Born to Die album in an effort to forget.
