almost

by | Aug 24, 2004 | General | 0 comments

I was driving down the road, it was late, dark that sort of deal. It was a highway, not much traffic at all. I was cruising along and almost in slow motion I saw 2 kids on the right hand, off the road. They were at this guard rail type of fence. One kid threw something over the fence. He then threw another, and in mid air it exploded into a huge fireball. The two kids then ran back across the road, the road that I’m driving on no less, to get to the other side at their cars. Those butt holes, i say to myself as i’m racing down the highway. The front left corner of my car taps one guy’s foot and causes him to fall on his face. I grin as I cruise on past, feeling as if I had just won justice, watching him in the right side mirror lying on the ground, attempting to get up.
I head to a local restaurant, and sit down at an empty table. I order a drink and some food. In the corner above is a TV with the local news, a video of ambulances and lights and darkness all around. A reporter’s voice over could be heard, “Tonight, a bizarre accident left one area man dead on Highway 85. The accident was reported around…” And the screen shows pictures of a blood filled highway, and a glimpse of the young man’s legs, chopped off just above the ankles. “Authorities have no direct cause to the accident, no eye witnesses, and no way of knowing just what happend tonight.”

I spent the next few hours agonizing over every detail, just knowing it could not be my fault, knowing I didn’t kill someone. I contemplated turning my self in, but would I go to jail? Would I be punished, or would it be ruled an accident? Just what were those kids doing throwing those explosives around? Were they trying to hurt someone? Did I do the right thing by hitting him? I didn’t mean to hit him like that, I didnt even mean to hit him at all, but it happened. And seeing the damage he was doing I didnt feel bad making him fall down. But, I could spend the rest of my life in jail now. Especially if i try to hide away, knowing I did something bad and didn’t confess about it. Or, even worse, when I looked in my rear view mirror, did I actually see that I had cut off his feet and continue to drive away anyway?

That was just a dream.
A few nights ago.

I was driving down the road, I had just gotten off work. I drive this road almost every day. And as I flew down the back country road at 70mph, a white car was about to pass me coming the opposite direction. The car slowed down abruptly as it passed. Must be turning into their house. I continued down the road. Ahead, I see some debris in the road, maybe it’s a bag of trash. I contemplate what kind of debris it could be. A bag of trash? I should pass around it. A few pieces of paper and cardboard? I can run over it. As I get closer, I decide it is probabally a bag of trash, so off to the side I go. The bag was not far into the road, almost straddling the right side white line. So, I straddle the yellow line. I pass and I look to the side and notice the bag wave in my wind. Maybe I hit the edge of it. I get back into my lane and look in the rear view mirror. It’s still waving. It’s moving. It turn’s it’s head and looks at me. it moves it’s ar…. wait. it’s head? it looked at me?

There was a complete undeniable moment of “what the ???…??” and I slam on brakes. I back into a driveway I had just passed. I then notice the white car that had passed me had already pulled over, and was the driver was walking towards me. I look in the road, and there’s a girl laying there. I grab my cell phone, jump out of the car, and run towards her. The other lady started to run to her also, and I stood over the girl and said “Hey! Are you alright?” She just screamed. Her legs from the knees down were on the white line and in the grass, while the rest of her body was in the road. The lady picked her up, and drug her out of the road. I called 911 while she tried to tell if the girl was hurt. I did not see any blood on the road, but the girl was salivating, and had a severely runny nose. She could not stand up, and would not stop screaming. “Where are you?” I’m on Bobbitt Road, just past the Vance and Franklin county line. “Are you in Vance or Franklin county?” I’m in Franklin. “Ok, let me transfer you to there.. hold please” “Hello, what’s going on?” Well, I was driving……(hey cut and paste here) “And you’re on Bobbitt Road?” Yes, not far from Vance County. “Please hold” hold hold hold “Sir, I do not see Bobbitt Road in Franklin county” I run to the lady, Hey, what’s the name of this road? “Sid Mitchell” How about Sid Mitchell road? “Ok, yes, that turns into Bobbitt Road in Vance County. Please hold”

The lady has been trying to talk to the girl and during this time, 2 other small girls came running up from a nearby house. “Who are you? Is this your sister? Do you know her? What’s wrong with her?” The two girls say they were playing and this girl ran away “Were you playing together?” amidst the screams, the girl makes out a barely recognizeable yes. “did you run away?” yes “Would they not let you play with them?” yes. The lady lets the girl go to see if she could stand up, and she falls right over.

“Is the girl hurt?” I don’t know, she won’t stop screaming. I dont see any blood, but she’s not able to stand or anything “Ok, stay there and we’re going to send someone to you” Ok. By this time, several cars had pulled over, no one wanted to say much to us, they just all kind of ran around. They even almost ignored the girl. I couldnt tell if they lived here or not. there were several houses where we were. The lady said she thinks some people pulled up that were supposed to have been watching over the girls. The girls say their parents are not at home. The house is locked and they have no key. No one knows where their mom is. Some people leave, and they stay away for a while, and some more come back. The lady that had stopped had to go to work, so I stayed there with the people until help showed up.

At some point, the girl gets up and runs back to one of these houses. She gets on the steps and another lady that had just pulled up is holding her. She looks at me and asks “did you hit her?” no, i didnt hit her, she was laying in the road. I don’t think anyone hit her. There’s no blood. But she won’t stop screaming, we thought maybe she was having a siezure or something. This lady screams to some of the other children that she shouldn’t be there. I dont know who was talking to who, since there were people everywhere that had came from all directions. But I dont think the lady lived here. Eventually i figure this is mom. and grandmom was there too, and she tells me they dont know the name of it, but the girl has some sort of medical condition.

By this time, a sherrif arrives. Mom sends the girl back to a car and sherrif gets the lady’s name and number and she tells him that i found the girl and thought something was wrong, but it’s ok now and she runs off to the car to take off. She obviously didnt want to talk to him. And he obviously quickly realized I was going to be the person to talk to here, not her. Sherrif waits for her to leave and begins to speak with me. I tell him the above story, and he just looks puzzled, amazed and confused. I said I didnt know what else to do but call 911. I also say they’re lucky the girl didn’t get run over, especially by me. I thought there was a bag of trash in the road. I almost made that decision to run through it. Then where would I be? What sort of events would of unfolded then? The officer thanks me for my time, not knowing quite what else to say and i thank him for his. The lady never thanked me, never thanked the sherrif, and didnt’ show a lot of concern her child was left alone in the middle of the road. I got in my car, and continued on my way home. Hoping this deed outweighed the last.

This was not just a dream.
It was real. About 6 hours ago