10 Minute Prompt: side effects

I often use things for their side effect. Benadryl for sleep, cheese for comfort, drinks for camaraderie. Knowing that the thing itself does something I don't care about. Every now and then I drive to feel the steering wheel under my hand, the G-force of getting there, the rough road loud under the wheels. But those times are very rare. Usually I drive to get there, using the time to relax or to laugh, or to get into the mood with some music. Behind the wheel, driving to visit a friend, I get in the car before I have spoken a word to another person that day. My thoughts are crammed in my head, jostling for attention. They start to bicker. I can let them bicker, I can let their conflict set the tone of the day. Or I can listen to music, a throbbing beat with a weaving brook of gentle melody trickling over rocks of tympani, bringing the hum in my mind to a sine wave of harmony. Finally, we are all going to the same place, no one is pulling the other way.