whap

We were walking down the road in Uwharrie State Forest, cars passing by us (coming toward us of course, since we were walking on the left side of the road as we should) when suddenly...

WHAP!

Something hit me on the shoulder; I flinched away from the force of it, thinking: beer bottle? rear-view mirror? THEY HIT ME! All this within the space of a second; then I had turned to look after the car, which sped away--it had never slowed down--offering no clue. The object had fallen in the road.

A half-full package of Gummi Life Savers.

We picked it up and walked on down the road, speculating: did someone throw this at us? Try to give it to us? Intentional whapping or charitable impulse? My shoulder was still stinging. A lot of people don't realize how fast they're going, or how that affects someone who's just walking. We've had quite a few people yell out their windows at us as they go by; we catch a loud syllable "O" or "Ah" or "Eyy," and the car's flashed past before we can turn our heads, and we continue walking, speculating on whether it was hostile or friendly. (Once, an exception, we caught the full word "hippies." Still weren't sure if it was hostile or friendly.)

We did exactly that. We walked on down the road, the package of gummies swinging from my hand, speculating: did they throw it at us? Try to hand it to us? Did some kid toss it out the window to spite her brother? If it was a charitable act, did they hear the WHAP and feel stupid? My shoulder had stopped stinging by now. "Oh well," I said. "These look good."

And they were.