Get a load of the accident! Bringing a highway to a complete standstill. Pretty impressive eh? Not when you see those headlights bearing down on you and guess what honey, you ain't got NOWHERE to go.
We're driving down the road, two lanes on each side, little dinky median dividers separating us.
Julie is laughing, drinking a diet pepsi from the taco stand. Emily is twirling her hair around her finger, her favorite habit. We are all singing along to whatever crap the radio is playing as Ian's ipod connector is busted. I'm fiddling with the radio, trying to find something worth listening to.
Ian is driving. One had casually draped over the top of the wheel, steering with his palm. The cool way to drive.
It happened so fast. We were laughing and turning around so everyone could see everyone, and the next instant there is nothing but headlights all round, and then silence. There is glass everywhere. We are everywhere.
Police come, people are peering down at us with flashlights. Voices, mumbling, anger. Cars are creeping by, heads turning, some making the sign of the cross. I look around for a body. It feels like a tv show, not real.
The person in the other car is hurt really badly. We're all hurt, but nothing like that guy. He went through the windshield. We can see the police shining their headlights into the cylindrical hole where the driver's face flashed at us all once millisecond before plowing into us. I saw the guy - his face was twisted, as if anticipating the pain that was to come (like when you stub your toe but that brief moment before you feel if even though you know it's coming and it's going to hurt like a mother----).
He will live. We all will live. Our injuries are all minor but they take us all to the hospital anyway for observation and cuts. Amy has a concussion - she wasn't wearing her seatbelt.
The driver wasn't drunk - he had apparently suffered a stroke while driving. His car crossed the median and hit us head on. Amy is lucky she didn't get thrown from the car because she'd unbuckled her belt to show us some funky dance moves.
We don't hate the guy. It wasn't really his fault. The car was totaled. The insurance company told Ian that the guy had been warned he was a 'walking time bomb' for stroke or heart attack so at first we were all pissed that he was out - but then we thought about it and what was he supposed to do, just stay in his house?
Anyway, what I remember most was the time when the noise just seemed out of sync with life. Noise was muted, far away. Time slowed down, and yet it was all over so fast. The blaring lights in our face as we couldn't see anything, the knowing that we were about to impact head on, wondering if this was the day we were going to die. Not even having time to contemplate it.
I don't remember my last thought. It was a blur, more like a "Huh?"
Nice.