Black Ice

I'm not an ice skater, so when I hear the words "black ice" I don't think of a calm skate on a frozen pond. Instead I imagine the skid mark, the tire tracks off the road. What is it about black ice that strikes terror in my heart? It's the stealth, isn't it? Fearing something that you can't see. It's the ordinariness of the ice, the way it poses as a puddle but turns out to be something more, something sinister. Black snow isn't good either, of course, but at least you know what you're getting — the fumes of a thousand internal combustion engines, the grit of countless plow-gouged roads. Black snow coats the roadside mounds and stands in sharp contrast to lawns of untouched white. But black ice is invisible; it's felt before it's seen. I drive cautiously when black ice is about; the curves of Fox Mill that are normally such a joy to lean into, I slog through slowly these days. And let's not even mention how I shuffle along suspiciously shiny sidewalks. Black ice makes me walk like an old woman.