Polar Bears

The sour pickle taste in her mouth. Lingering. Wet eyes. Red cheeks. Clemens drove down the highway. Darkness lit by her headlights. Desert and cactus. Big trucks tumbling past.

Clemens saw a hitchhiker on the road. A woman. She slowed down and saw that it was Ashley. Ashley?!

“Hey Clemens,” Ashley said, “I am so glad you stopped and are a woman… Especially at this time of night…”

“Ashley,” Clemens managed a little smile, “come on in…”

Ashley looked like she was wearing the same clothes as yesterday. No change… Maybe dirt poor… She was probably on the way to Hollywood.

“Like seriously… Global Warming is real… The ice caps are melting… Rising sea levels… Polar bears have no homes…” Ashley said.

“Polar bears?!” Clemens said she was now invested. Those cute snowy giants needed their igloos.

“It’s all greenhouse gases — like coming from your car right here, and all the others…” Ashley said.

“My car?” Clemens said, conflicted, how could her old hunk of junk mean the end of cute polar bears.

“I would swap it out for a bicycle or something when we get to Hollywood…” Ashley said, “So much better for the environment…”

“Um… This car is my home…” Clemens said.

Home… Clemens didn’t say anything after that and Ashley had fallen asleep. It was just her, the road, and the night.

Would polar bears hate her too? She didn’t want that on her conscience…