Adventures in Commuting

So there we were, sleepy and half listening to the radio.

Our morning journey down Interstate 5 was going much the same as most mornings. In between yawns and thoughts of going back to bed, Anastasia and I made jokes about our silly dog. We talk about our dog a lot. Probably too much.

About ten minutes into our commute, we caught up to a dark green Geo Tracker. It was a soft top missing the rear cover, so we could easily see the driver and a passenger in the front and something in the back. The something was about as tall as the two people in the front, but covered with cloth or towel.

"Is that a dead body?" Anastasia asked with a little laugh.

"Yeah, I think so," I joked.

We smiled at each other because ha ha yeah right, but then, as we kept looking at the something sitting in the the other vehicle, our smiles shifted to a sort of suspicious half-grin.

"That's definitely a person," I said. "Look how the head's bobbing around with the bumps in the road."

We watched the body as it bobbed around, looking quite dead. We noticed the head was resting against a stick of some kind, like a broomstick, jutting up from the rear cargo hold of the vehicle. It didn't look comfortable at all. Looked like it was just there to keep the head from flopping over the back of the seat. And then the fact that the head was draped, at least from the back and sides, with a towel or something...

"That really does look like a dead body," I said.

"Should we call 911?" Anastasia asked. The mere idea of it seemed preposterous -- calling 911, telling them we're headed south on I-5 and that there may or may not be a dead body propped up in the back of a dark green Geo Tracker, license plate number...

Anastasia had the cell phone out as we changed lanes and drove up on the left side of them for a better look. What we found was a young man in the back seat -- pale, unhealthy complexion, eyes closed, mouth hanging wide open.

"Can't tell if he's dead or just passed out," I said. But what about the broomstick holding his head up? It looked like it'd be pretty painful to someone with a pulse. And the towel over his head?

As we got behind the Geo tracker again, we saw the guy's head finally move, like he'd just woken up. He sat forward, looked to either side of the vehicle and then reclined back against the broomstick.

And we laughed and laughed.

Because we almost called the cops on dark green Geo Tracker for having an ugly, sleeping passenger.