A Time for Tears, A Time to Heal

Teens spend so much of their time pushing you away, it can seem like the demons have stolen them, and replaced them with eye-rolling, snide-remark cracking, skinny-jean-clad creatures just brimming with disdain for everything you are, everything you stand for. Though you'd give anything to have them connect with you just for a moment, you find yourself stressed-out from their briefest interaction.

Driving home last evening, Paige was riding shotgun, Tess and Arden in back. Up on the bank, Paige spotted a deer running parallel to the road. She watched as it cut down over the bank and directly into the path of the car in front of us. "Oh no, oh no, oh no!" Paige groaned.

There wasn't even time for that car to brake.

The car hit the deer square on with the crunch of an axe splitting seasoned firewood. The deer was spun around, and I could see the life was already gone from its eyes. As the impact sent the deer's body sliding across the other lane and into the ditch, Paige had a front row seat to the carnage.

Her hands clapped over her mouth, to muffle the moans of horror at the scene that was over before the driver could even react.

As I continued up the hill, I reached out and wrapped her hand in mine. Her moans grew louder, longer, and turned into sobs.

"Paige, what's wrong?" the girls in the back asked, as they had missed the whole thing.

"She just saw a deer get hit by a car." I told them.

I eased the van off the road into the car lot by the traffic light, got out and came around. I opened her door, reached in, and pulled her out into the drizzle of the gray Fall day.

She allowed me to hold her close, and she wailed and grieved and wept into my shoulder. I smoothed her hair, rubbed her back and murmured about how nobody ever wants that to happen. I spoke of the sadness and how she would never forget what she just witnessed. I spoke of releasing a soul, enabling it to 'become', and how this was a quick release for the deer.

Tess and Arden remained silent in the van for the half hour that we stood in the rain, swaying, sobbing, soothing.

When I thought we were able to continue home, I helped Paige back into the van and drove the remaining two miles to the house.

After dinner, Paige remarked that she was running out of time to do her homework. Arden commented that if she hadn't spent a long time next to the road crying over a deer, she'd have her homework done.

"Hey, now. Paige needed that," I reminded Arden. "And you guys were very respectful to sit there while she was experiencing those emotions."

Arden thought for a moment and said,

"Yeah, but... it was a long time. And I really had to pee. But there just didn't seem to be a good way to lean out the window and mention that."