A Street Called Shortcut

I drove by a street called shortcut.

It piqued my curiosity and it caused me to wonder how a street gets its name. I swear I heard it whisper to me; it was either that or the wind. I think it was both. It called out to me louder and louder with every full rotation of the tire tread ripping up the carpet of dirt covering the asphalt. I slowed so I could see; it curved abruptly and the turn was muddled by trees. It looked like a vortex of turns and curves and trees; like something out of Alice in Wonderland. I took the magnetic right turn that was pulling my car towards it and started on the street called shortcut.

I experienced a whole day on this street.

Suddenly I'd been punched through the curve. I was gliding around the other side of the curve where tree branches hung lower but the trunks stood taller. I was wrapped up in a corkscrew coil of road, not knowing which way was up. The fog grappled so low over the street it tripped up my tires. And the bucks and does, I swear, they danced gracefully and maybe even smiled. They didn’t bolt, they weren’t skittish. Through my windshield hazed by condensation and dew I saw them dancing like they were at a jubilee. The road kept on forever. If I stared too far beyond my windshield I simply saw the road and the trees meet into a pinhole black speck, so I kept driving, and driving, and driving.The air was wet and the road was dense, and the dirt was compacted richly, like it was chocolate cake batter ready to be eaten off the spoon. My car, I think, was flying, or maybe it was gliding. I felt somewhere in the middle of safely grounded and freely suspended, moving whimsically without a direction, without fear of what was ahead, just enjoying the drive.

Turning off the street was a funny thing. I couldn’t tell if I had turned around and exited the way I entered or if I was spit out on the other end; it all blended magnificently into one. I couldn’t tell deja vu from something new. Suddenly I was back on my commutable roads, the ones that don’t shine like Shortcut does. The ones where I get stopped at red lights and the trees are typical in size. How could a street like Shortcut do so much in so little time? I experienced a whole day on that street.

Curiosity and an, "I wonder how a street gets its name?” is all it took.