The Eager Emu

I should start by saying that this story is as sad as it is funny. It was over twenty years ago, back when I lived in California with my mom and dad. I was at the end of middle school maybe the beginning of high school, so 8th to 9th grade. My mom worked a Monday through Friday job while my dad had a weekday off, so he worked Saturday.

This particular Saturday started like any other. My dad went to work, and my mom and I started our normal Saturday routine. First the music came on, always 96.7 KCAL Rocks, then we got down to the chores. Dusting the whole house, vacuuming the carpet, mopping the tile, and while doing that we rotated in the loads of laundry. Once the house was clean, we headed to the grocery store, list in hand.

We got home in plenty of time to put the groceries away and start dinner. While we were cooking and making sure that there was nothing left to do, we had the radio on again. After a few songs played the usual commercials started to play. The next thing we hear is the radio DJ saying, “We are getting reports that there has been an accident on highway 138.”

“Well, dad’s going to be late,” I said to my mom as she stuck her head in from the kitchen to hear better.

She nodded, “Yeah, I hope nobody is hurt.”

A few songs played and the DJ came back on with an update. “Nobody was injured in the accident on highway 138. Well, except for an emu that escaped from a nearby farm.”

My mom and I joked that it was most likely my dad who hit the emu since it would be the type of thing that happens to him. A few hours later we hear his truck pull on to our road, we headed out to greet him. Hoping he was not to annoyed from sitting in traffic.

When we rounded the garage, we saw it... the front end of his almost new truck was smashed. Not only smashed but it was stuffed with feathers. The look on his face said it all. Mom and I looked at each other and busted out laughing. “We knew it was you when we heard it on the radio!”

After we caught our breath, and my dad was inside having a cold drink he told us what had happened. It went like this:

He had left work on time, traffic was good on the freeway, and he had no trouble coming up the pass from Riverside to high desert. He got off the freeway at highway 138 and like normal began heading north. He had passed the gas station and the forestry station without an issue. Traffic was normal for 138 this time of day, so my dad was doing about 55 with a few other cars in a row.

When he came to the stretch of 138 that was straight, he noticed something on the shoulder. My dad new to be careful in this area because there were ranches off this part of the highway, so something on the shoulder could be anything from a dog to a person on horseback. As he got a bit closer, he could not believe his eyes.

An emu! It must have gotten lose from one of the ranches. Just as my dad began to slow down the emu decided it would be a keen time to cross the road. My dad did not even have time to think, he slammed the brakes, but it was too late. He was going too fast, and the emu was too close.

POOF! A plume of feathers engulfed the road. He could hear tires screech as all the other traffic came to a stop. He said everyone got out and asked if he was alright. When California highway patrol showed up, they laughed because what are the odds of this happening to someone?