Driving again, but in darkness deep

I drove a co-worker home from work tonight, through blacked-out parts of Ottawa. Originally, the plan was to drop her at Bilings Bridge Plaze, but during our evening shift, she discovered the bus that she would normally take from Bilings was no longer running because the thunderstorm-windstorm-tornado combination rolling into the city, so she asked me to drive her home. 

So, I drove her, after getting the boy, across a dark swath of Walkley Road, where all the streetlights were out, and every intersection a dark border. West down Walkley, peering for pedestrians at every sidestreet, then to McCarthy, blackness, and other drivers yielding, or frozen where they were, past the flashing cherries of police sedans, or blinded by fellow drivers who refused to turn off their brights, white-knuckling as they were, down a stretch of McCarthy under the full moon's gaze, guiding us where the night bore no promise. 

Then back, along night river of road under moonlight, down perilous Walkley where, at Bank, a four-way convergence of double lanes, and a car ripped past, passengers howling in delight. Then, along that river of fast night, that inky road unfamiliar, guided by oncoming headlights, that broken line the tact keeping me going, and bravery, rather foolish bravery, found in the comfort of the knowledge that moonlight allows better seeing than city light, and finally, streetlights, dotting in the distance. 

Home and alright, home after all, a perilous trip that you only feel afraid about afterwards, because you can't feel afraid during, but drive onward, knowing the road you've driven 1,000 times (I likely did drive that stretch more than that, as I used to drive that way to work for four years). The Walkley stretch was intimate, at least - the rest was complete, moonlight-drenched or chasms of the unknown that will likely be unrecognizable to me in daylight, and changed. I felt foolish for doing the journey, bringing my son along, but I wanted to help my co-worker get home safe, and to get him home from a friend's. Luckily, sometimes you don't have to see the road to know where you  are on the path.