Do you remember this post. Probably not. It's the one where I went on like an irrational nutbar about my 18 year old getting his license. I have been told by countless people in countless different ways over the past two months that I need to gear down on the worry about the boy driving.
Yeah well fuck all of them because I was right.
Saturday noon I'm reading email, drinking coffee and deciding whether to go for a run or go shopping. My phone rings, the caller ID shows a name I don't recognize. I normally don't answer the phone unless I recognize the name...something twigged at the back of my neck and for some reason I answered this call.
Me: Hello (said in my phony office voice)
Stranger: Hello this is (insert stranger name). Your sons have been in a car accident.
Before she could get "They're ok" out of her mouth I was throwing up in the kitchen sink.
Sometimes it's no goddamn fun at all being right.
So I get directions to where they are after making this poor woman assure me I'm not going to drive up only to find their heads detached from their bodies. I assure Nora that everything will be ok, call their father, and hop in my car.
They are on a back road about 10km from the house. As I pull up both boys are standing on the side of the road. There are two guys standing with them. The truck.....
The truck almost snapped in two. The engine was practically sitting in the front seat. The airbags deployed, the front tires were sideways. It was a culvert that stopped the truck. A fucking culvert. And my boys were standing their alive.
The story I got out of the boys is that Monty had the window open and a bug flew in the window. As he tried to swat the bug out of his face he jerked the wheel of the truck, the truck went off onto the shoulder of the road and he couldn't get it back under control. They went into the ditch, travelled about 15 feet and hit a culvert.
There's no doubt in my mind he was speeding. You don't do that much damage to a vehicle if you were only travelling 60 km an hour.
According to the tow truck driver - if they hadn't of had their seat belts on I'd be planning a double funeral today. I don't think he realized that I had already played that whole what if scenario through my head a dozen times. That I would spend the rest of the weekend seeing that truck every time I closed my eyes and playing the "what if's" through my mind.
Both boys were white as ghosts. Monty had somehow scraped the shit out of his arm, Jimmy had a severely bruised chin. Monty is devastated over the loss of his new found freedom. He's too young and too stupid to realize how much worse it could have been. He was lamenting the loss of his truck yesterday and I looked at him and said, "M how much worse would you feel right now if we were burying your brother?" Perspective boy....perspective.
It scared the shit out of Jimmy. He was very quiet all weekend and I would force him every once in awhile to talk about it. If you've ever been in a car accident you know how frightening it is to know that you're going to crash. I can't imagine how it feels to a 16 year old. I wish I could somehow take the memory of it away for him.
Everyone keeps telling Monty- a truck is replaceable. As long as I fucking live and breathe that boy will not own another vehicle before he's 30....at least. Going out to buy the bubble wrap and duct tape today to insulate the two of them against further catastrophe.
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2 years ago
Wow, that is scary! I am so glad that they are both alright. And you know, maybe it's a good thing to keep that memory attached to him for just a little bit longer. Kind of like some future-speed brain insurance.
For when they escape the bubble wrap that is.