Oh DEER and "the dress"

Naomi has been saving money for months.  When we first went to Bakersville, the little pioneer village where they grow and sell rare seeds and have a pioneer shop, Naomi fell in love with the pioneer dresses.  She finally had enough to buy one for herself and was anxious to buy one. 

Seth drove to Bakersville for driving practice.  At one point he drifted and swerved rather sharply to correct our SUV.  I told him that it was dangerous to correct so sharply at high speeds because it could turn sideways and flip. 

When Eric is driving and sees a dead deer he said "oh deer..."   Well it got really real for us.....

Not even 5 minutes later a deer came running onto the highway right in front of us.  I knew we were going to hit it.  I looked at Seth and experienced the incident almost in slow motion.  He slowed, but did not slam on the brakes - there was a car behind us.  He did not cross the double yellow line.  He did not swerve.  In the blink of an eye he had to make the decision that our lives were more valuable than attempting to save the deer from our suburban and potentially putting all of us in danger for a deer that he did not want to hit or hurt. 

The whole thing was rather difficult.  Seth tried to pull over immediately, but I told him to keep going a bit.  Then he pulled off when it was safe.  There was very little shoulder and we were right on the white line when he pulled off.  We all breathed heavily.  The poor deer!  And yet, Seth did everything exactly as he should have. He did not get rear ended, he did not go into oncoming traffic, he did not veer off the road.  But all was not well.  An animal died.  We were all a bit shaken.
I got out to examine the damage.  There was none.   I was glad of it.  When we were all back to breathing normally and had talked about it, Seth continued on. 

I asked Seth to drive home.  It was pouring down rain, but he agreed.  The return trip was just as nerve racking.  He gripped the steering wheel tightly and struggled to see well even with the windshield wipers at full speed the whole way home.  We made it and he did great.

Seth later told me he didn't want to drive after hitting the deer, but that he didn't want to get out when the car was right on the white line.  He didn't want to drive home either.  I am grateful that Seth choose not to give up.  That he persevered in the uncomfortable.  He is changed forever and he is much more confident behind the wheel

Naomi did find a dress she loved enough to buy.... 

She tried it on the minute we got home.

She even wore it to church.

Note:  I did not attempt to harvest the deer.  It did not die immediately with legs flailing (not good meat), it was rather mangled, and I didn't have a knife or tarp in the SUV. 
Guess what's in my car now!