I was blasting imagine dragons on my airpods and

not paying attention to anything else, but then I saw

the dog, a pitiful little stray right by the wheel of our

car. I’m not a dog person, so I felt no burning desire

to rescue it from the streets and its inevitable fate,

smashed under the wheel of a car on some busy

intersection or highway, but I panicked for an infinitesimal

second, a brief flit of time, when I saw its mellow

eyes staring up at me as it trotted closer to the

back right wheel of our car. I gasped, a quiet gasp,

and sat up a little straighter so I could distinctly

see it. I think it saw me, too, for a fleeting

millisecond. In that moment, a thousand worrisome

images flashed through my mind: the dog splattered

beneath the car wheel, blood, howls, my grandma

screaming about the little life taken, before the

car smoothly rumbled down the street and the dog,

tongue lolling out, trotted away, unmindful of the

second life it had received.