Uncommon Messenger

Dori awoke with both hands tightly wrapped around the steering wheel and her forehead firmly planted against it. She leisurely rubbed her eyes, then looked around to see that she was dangerously close to her family's favorite body of water for boating: Blue Bird Pond. Ten more feet or so and she would have been smack dab in the middle of her very own frozen metal aquarium.

Whoa! What happened last night? Dori thought to herself. She glanced down at the passenger's seat and saw a small pool of vomit. "Ooh...gross," Dori whispered as she reached into her glove compartment for the antibacterial wipes that her mom had recently packed for her. She wiped up the sticky mess as tears streamed from her eyes.

She felt like an Alzheimer's patient; she was only sixteen but she truly could not remember what had happened a few hours earlier.

"Oh, my goodness! My parents are probably worried sick!" Dori commented aloud.

She yanked her cell phone from her purse and began dialing frantically.

The first voice that she heard was her father's. He sounded a lot like Darth Vader : "This is the Adams residence. Please leave a message. If you don't, don't bother calling back…"

Suddenly, Dori remembered that she had attended a Tolo dance earlier that evening therefore she quickly hung up.

"What happened? Think Dori!" Dori said aloud as she hit her forehead with her palm.

Dori thought long and hard. She remembered leaving her house in an olive green and creme, striped sundress and heading down Interstate 75.

Now--she was beginning to remember the dance and more importantly dancing with Frazier Grier, her longtime crush. Out of the blue, Dori's senses were stirred by a bitter taste in her mouth resembling a pungent mix of pineapple's and rubbing alcohol.

"Confetti!" Dori said aloud. She remembered trying the illicit concoction in the parking lot outside of the dance. The drink consisted of Confetti Vodka, fresh pineapples and Sunny Delight.

Normally, Dori cherished being in the driver's seat of her own life, but she didn't want to lose her social standing or Frazier's recent romantic attention towards her. Therefore, if Frazier was drinking Confetti she figured she should be drinking it too. But technically, there was that small issue of her being on epileptic medication…

Dori felt a major headache coming on. She also felt flushed. She looked into her rearview mirror and almost scared herself. For starters, it looked as if her mascara were running for its life while half of her vibrant ringlets were now matted to the left side of her head by perspiration. She definitely looked as if she was auditioning for the lead role of "GOUL #1" in an upcoming horror flick.

She also couldn't believe how seasick she felt. She felt as if she had been doing Wonder Woman twirls on the deck of her parents boat during a major tsunami.

Suddenly, Dori looked up to see that a small exotic-looking blue bird had just landed on the hood of her jeep. It had a small strip of paper firmly planted in its beak.

Dori decided to get out of the car and take a closer look. The forest's feathered friends always amazed her by their sense of determination. Rain or shine they were always gathering food for their families or creating a new place of habitation.

"Hi there cutie!" Dori cooed.

The blue bird stood as still as a statue.

"Whatcha got?" Dori said as she gently pulled the strip of paper from the bird's beak without any objection from her winged messenger. It was a portion of an old newspaper clipping. It read: 22% of teens who drink and drive have serious car wrecks during their first year of driving. Sadly, 11% will die in these preventable collisions.

Dori suddenly felt faint. She placed her hand on the roof of her jeep to steady herself. She heard something crunch underneath her feet; she looked down and saw an empty Doritos bag. The side of the bag was torn so it's top portion simply read: Dori.

Dori shuddered. She had only been driving for six months and she felt as if someone were definitely trying to give her a stern warning from above, through her new friend: Mr. Blue Bird. She was just grateful that she had taken the time to "listen" and had not hastily chosen to shoo him away instead.

Dori knew in her spirit that she had made a big mistake earlier that evening. One that could have cost her her life. She vowed to never mix her epileptic meds with alcohol nor drive while intoxicated ever again, cute boy present or not.

Dori absolutely abhorred not being in control, forgetting crucial details about her romantic life (like whether she and Frazier kissed before he headed home last night) and feeling like she had to vomit every three minutes. She hated to admit it but her parents had been right about alcohol all along. It was definitely overrated.