I brought home a hitchhiker the other night.
Friday night I caught up with a lot of friends at Silicon Valley Comic Con. I also got to pitch some of Chaos Wolf, and discovered I need to carry a lot more business cards when I go to this type of event.
Because I had to work the full day, by the time I arrived, I had to park a few blocks away. I had injured my foot earlier in the week, and had been babying it all night. When I left after dark, I pulled out of the parking lot, ready to be home after a long day at work and painful evening of walking.
That was when I saw the snail clinging to my hood. At this point I was on the freeway and couldn’t pull over to remove it. I had no choice but to drive home, waiting to hear the crunch of the shell hitting my windshield.
That never happened. The snail hunkered down, spreading more of its body against the hood, and clung on for dear life. He made the entire ten mile drive and actually crawled further across my car’s hood. When I pulled into the driveway, the first thing I did was gently remove him from the car and placed him in the planter with plenty of leaves to much on. Such bravery should always be rewarded.
So my new resolution is to be like the snail. Hang onto the car hood no matter how fast it is going. Grip tight and keep moving. Don’t stop. One day, if I’m lucky, whoever is driving the car will carefully pull me off the cold, metal hood and put me down in a soft bed of leaves.
Snails are amazing. 🙂 I hope you had a good time at SVCC! We should hang out and talk about it.