Sunflower put the canvas shopping bags full of her latest Whole Foods shopping excursion in the back seat of her car. The five cent per bag refund she got for bringing in reusable shopping bags provided her some small justification for the extra cost of shopping there, but her choice to shop there wasn’t about money. Sunflower felt it was important to support businesses that promoted organic food production, and most regular supermarkets weren’t nearly as vegan-friendly.
She climbed into her small car and pulled the door closed behind her. As she turned the engine over, saying a silent prayer that today would not be the day that the engine finally gave out, she thought about how much money the mechanic and told her it would take to get the car back to reliable condition. More specifically, she thought about the fact that it was money she simply didn’t have.
As Sunflower pulled out of the parking lot and turned right onto the road towards home she heard the shopping bags rustling in the back seat. She flicked her gaze from the road to the rear view mirror to see the back seat. The load in one of the bags had shifted when she set it down, and now her organic produce was in danger of spilling all over her back seat. Sunflower reached back to grab the bag and set it right, briefly moving her attention from the road to the back seat to do so.
When her attention turned back to the road she gasped in horror. There, running right in front of Sunflower’s car, was a white rabbit. Everything seemed to happen at once. Sunflower slamming on the brakes to avoid crushing the innocent animal. The flash of white disappearing under the front of her car. The shiny new SUV that had been about to pass her slamming into the back of her car.
After both cars came to a stop Sunflower checked herself to see if she had been injured. No blood, no apparent broken bones. She got out of the car to check on the other driver. No one in the SUV was injured, either. The SUV had only minor cosmetic damage to the front bumper, but Sunflower’s car was not so fortunate. Her trunk was smashed, crumpled like an accordion. The rear window was covered in spiderweb cracks. There would be no using the trunk, or even opening it, without much repair work. Work that wouldn’t be paid for by her PLPD coverage.
The SUV owner called the police on his cell phone after they had exchanged insurance information. Sunflower walked to the front of her car to see if she had managed to avoid hitting the rabbit.
She hadn’t.
The rabbit was flattened against her front bumper. Its white plastic handles framing her left headlight, as if reaching out to embrace it. The words “Whole Foods” emblazoned on its side in large green letters.
