Vision, circa Saturday.

When we were driving through the long, endless tunnel, with its fine lights and its solid, smooth tiled ceilings and walls, I told him I loved him and braced my hand on his thigh as it all collapsed. Just like the bypass collapsed, the other day, only without reason.

He's a good driver, but you can only dodge just so far, so deep in a tunnel, surrounded by so many other vehicles. And it's a safe car, but broken metal supports and heavy stone can only be thwarted so well. Sometimes people still get crushed and impaled, and they bleed, and they try to get one more weak kiss in, before the paramedics try to pry them free, just in case one or both of them don't make it through the day, or the long night. I couldn't live very well with that missed opportunity, even if mashing my organs against the jagged edges to get to him might diminish my eventual chance at survival, anyway.




There was gentle daylight on the other side of the tunnel, and it was over. We were utterly unscathed, I relaxed my grip on his leg, and sighed, and smiled, and closed my eyes. It's a strong tunnel. It's a safe car. He's a good driver.

But when we drive through tunnels, you know, I still hold my breath (and occasionally put my palms on the ceiling of the car), like we did when we were children. It used to be simple ritual, but as with most rituals, I have come up with reasons why one might do it. If the tunnel collapsed, for instance, and crushed down the roof of the car, you might only crush your wrists and arms, rather than your skull. If everything collapsed around you, you'd already have the space to breathe, being at capacity, when you were confined.

And this is how I think about things, day to day.

I swear, I'm generally a very cheerful person. But perhaps you can understand why I might not want to share this sort of thing with the people I see day to day. With, of course, the exception of him what I love. He, who manages to get us safely through the traffic, every time, who never gets merged into fatally by trucks, who never gets blown into the median and over the edge, who never gets thrown into spins by the careless drivers apparently attempting to do it.

Him what never, to date, has actually been flattened and left for dead on the road, during his long walk back home to me, in the afternoon.

Him what manages to hold and kiss and not judge me for my fears, what is patient with me.

Him what I love.