Car Accident

If I hadn't been wearing a seat belt, I would have gone through the windshield. It's a scary thought.

Mikkie and I went to Memphis to see Jazz, her little sister. Poplar Avenue was closed, so we couldn't get on the highway where we normally would. Which is how we ended up in a hit and run car accident at the intersection of Thousand Oaks and American Way. We were turning left. The light was green, and Mik stopped to make sure no one was coming. Then she went. And screamed. I never even saw the guy coming.

He was going about 60 mph, ran a red light, and slammed into us. The car spun 180 degrees, and he didn't stop. We found out later that he was driving a stolen car on a suspended license, with several warrants outstanding for his arrest. I managed to write down his tag number. A man had stopped, and called the police on his cell phone. We gave him the number.

My knee had smashed into the dash. Mikkie broke her collar bone [Note from Mik- Not really. Found out later it wasn't broken at all, and I had migraines from hell from the restraint they made me wear.], though we didn't know it then. We both bruised our ribs. I'm crying because my knee is hurting. Mikkie was repeating over and over, "It was green, it was green. He ran a red light. He didn't stop!" The car won't move. I told Mik to put the flashers on, which was ridiculous considering the state the car was in. We got out of the car. It hurts to walk. Mikkie starts to cry. The car is totaled, the fender pushed up against the left wheel. We hug, both crying. A lady who helped us later described it as "the saddest thing she had ever seen". We walk over to the side of the road. I'm limping.

A man and a lady had stopped. The man, who wore a FedEx nametag, offered to look at Mik's car. Mik doesn't have a jacket. The wind is whipping around and it's very cold. The lady insists that we get in her car, and lets Mik use her cell phone. She stays with us until the police come.

I have a cigarette, since I can't think of anything else to do. Mik can't get Ryan on the phone. I can't get Courtney. I call Jen and ask her to keep calling Ryan. She says she will. We talk to the police. The driver had abandoned the car and ran. But this woman had seen the accident, and she chased him in her car. She called the police and let them know where he had run to. She came back to tell us that they had caught him. She never even told us her name.

"Seatbelts!" Mikkie says, her eyes wide and scared. I never wear the seatbelt in that car because I'm so short that it cuts me across the neck. She hardly ever wears hers. Yet, we both happened to have ours on. Later, it will settle onto me, the thought... I almost died. I could have died. Mikkie could have died. It's a refrain that makes me shiver. I could have died, and the last thing I said to Lita was rude. I could have died with dirty dishes in the sink.

We went to the doctor. It cost around 400 dollars each, but we're both going to be fine. Mik has a newfound passion for seatbelts. I have a sporty new knee brace, and Mik has a fashionable new clavicle restraint, which looks like backpack straps without the pack. I had to take three days off from work.

I'm having some trouble sleeping. I lay down, and it's Choose Your Own Adventure in my head. I'm driving my car, a tiny Honda Civic, and it's crushed like a tin can. We have to be cut out of it, and the dash has broken both our legs, while the steering wheel crushes my chest. The car spins another way, and there's a sickening crack as my head hits the side window. I'm not wearing my seatbelt and I go through the windshield. Mik isn't wearing her seatbelt and her head slams through the windshield. We're hit another way and the car flips.

I hate these thoughts. They scare me.

But this too shall pass. Soon my ribs won't be hurting, and I'll be able to walk normally again. Mik's shoulder will heal. We're both alive, and relatively unhurt. And I am grateful.