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I bypass all these people and enter one of two ‘EZ-Pass only’ lanes and continue towards Allentown. There were a few people on the road before, and now there are none. My only road companions are but wispy trails of diminishing light in my rearview mirror. I have to wonder if the fact that the toll plaza is down has something to do with the sparse traffic on the road tonight, but I would never know. My family doesn’t watch TV and never answers the phone unless we know who it is, so our outside information basically comes from the Internet and the newspaper, respectively the fastest and slowest organized way to get information.

It appears I was wrong about the snow. On this patch of road where cars have been infrequent, the snow is resting comfortably and turning the dark, greasy road into a puffy white nightmare for fast drivers. It’s probably a good thing that I can still see what’s beneath all this snow. At least that’s what I think until I can faintly make out an enormous red splotch in the road, roughly the size of a car. Being a veteran of the road, I know that deer bleed a lot when hit, but I’ve never seen that much blood. Someone must have hit a bear or something.  That’s actually kind of a funny thought. The fact that it’s funny forces me to laugh at myself for thinking it’s funny.

My mind slowly drifts back into college life as I ease off the gas pedal a bit, I can’t exactly speed if there’s no one in front of me, because that would just be dumb. I think about what my Intellectual Heritage teacher told me about unity, and how few relationships have it anymore, obviously this mental conversation is sparked by my appreciation for Alice. Anyway, everyone in this day and age is up in arms about their individualism, if they start to lose that they go ballistic. Few people realize that being in a relationship is about a perfect compromise on behalf of both parties. The perfect compromise creates a balance, that balance is the perfect unity in the relationship. It’s what makes two individuals greater than the sum of each other. This is how I feel in regards to Alice.

The same concept is applied throughout religions; in fact, it’s one of the binding facts.  Within a person, it’s about attaining balance in the parts of the mind. It’s about what my IH teacher called ‘sacrificing the ego’. The clear examples are the mythos of Buddha and Jesus, two individuals who attained the perfect balance between the Freudian ‘superego’ and ‘id’, thereby making their ego obsolete. Eliminating the ego allows people to make complete sacrifices for others; it allows them to attain a perfect unity not only with themselves, but also with others.

I turn down my music for a moment and hear the sound of my cell phone ringing. I quickly reach into my carpenter’s jean pocket, trying to slide it out before whoever is calling me hangs up. In a few seconds, it’s out and opened, and I’m talking.

"Hello?"

"Hello?"

"Hi honey."

"Hello dear.  I’m just calling to see where you are in the scheme of things."

"Oh, uh, hold on, I’m passing a road sign."

The road sign says ‘Leigh High Valley Exits’.

"Oh, I’m almost at the exit to get into Allentown."

"Good, then you’re about twenty minutes away, right where I had you."

"Been thinking about me, huh?"

"Yeah… you know how much I miss you."

"I miss you too, my love. Well, no worries, I’ll be with you soon."

"Alright. Oh, uh… Jeff?"

"Yes dear?"

"Just… just try to be careful."

"I’m always careful." There’s a long pause. "Honey, are you there?"

"I’m… ounds like you’re break… ere?"

"Honey, I’m entering a dead zone. I love you, I’ll see you soon."

I hang up the phone just as all my service bars disappear. "Great." I mutter to myself. I drive through this toll plaza as well, but this time there isn’t any traffic.  It makes me think back to what the rest of the road looked like. Was there any real oncoming traffic on my way up to Allentown? I honestly can’t remember. Once through the toll plaza, I hang a slight right and get onto whatever route is next on the directions. I only remember exit signs when I’m trying to find my way somewhere.

Speeding up, I look down at the outside temperature gauge beneath the stereo. Supposedly it’s 19 degrees outside. As I’m in the process of looking up, I see a figure in the road, a person, brightly contrasted to the white snow on the highway. The only problem with the picture is that I’m only twenty feet from him and going 80 miles an hour. As a boiling shot of adrenaline enters my system, I simultaneously slam on the breaks and steer to the left of the figure, but the snow dangerously alters the physics of what I was attempting to do, causing the car to fishtail quickly so that the pedestrian will come into contact with the passenger side door at about 70 miles per hour.

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