Sunday, August 17, 2008Ernie is on a road trip with his wife. I hope he makes it home safely. The last time he went on a road trip he clipped the side of an old woman’s car on the freeway and flipped her upside-down a ditch. She is OK, and so is her daughter. But at the time, everything was a mess.
ERNIE: “I think a piece of dirt flew in my eye. I rubbed it for a second with my wrist and the next thing I know, BAM! I heard a loud noise and my car suddenly veered off the right side of the road. Dust was everywhere.”
JAKE: “Were you hurt?”
ERNIE: “No.”
JAKE: “What happened?”
ERNIE: “I made sure my wife was OK. She was, so I got out of the car. I saw a van on the side of the road. At first I thought I hit the van, but the woman inside told me I hit another car. I asked her where the car was and she pointed over the railing. I looked down and saw the car lying upside down in a ditch.”
JAKE: “No way!”
ERNIE: “Yeah.” (Pausing in troubled thought.) “The passenger was able to crawl out but the driver was trapped inside. They had to call the Jaws of Life to get her out.”
JAKE: “Holy crap.”
ERNIE: “Yeah dude,” (not smiling.) “I guess when I clipped her, she lost control of the car and drove off the side of the road into a steep ravine. Her car flipped over twice. If she had landed a few feet away, she would have rolled all the way down the ravine to the very bottom.”
JAKE: “But she wasn’t hurt?”
ERNIE: “No. She scraped her ear a little bit, but she was fine. An ambulance took her and her daughter to the hospital for some x-rays, but luckily they were OK.”
JAKE: “Did you go to the hospital?”
ERNIE: “No, it was dinner time so my wife and I drove to Denny’s.”
JAKE: “You were still able to drive your car?”
ERNIE: “Yeah. It slanted a little to the left, but it was still drivable. I had it towed back into Salt Lake. It’s totalled.”
His tone is casual, but his eyes are lost in troubled memory.
ERNIE: “It didn’t really hit me until the pancakes and syrup were placed on the table. I started shaking. I told my wife I couldn’t believe what just happened. It all seemed like a dream, you know. I could have killed somebody.”
JAKE: “Yeah, you’re lucky nobody was hurt. The Jaws of Life came and everything.”
ERNIE: “Dude, I know.”
He emailed me the news clipping from an online newspaper. It was only a paragraph in length and didn’t have a lot of details.
It’s startling how an extreme experience can alter a person’s reality. It makes them appreciate the day a little more, hug a loved one a little tighter, and shake off small irritations a little easier. Moments like these are what make life really sweet.
Thanks for sharing this one, Ernie.
1 comment:
My husband does not look like Ernie...I don't understand what this fixation is. That would be cool if he did look like Ernie though...then Ernie would be married to Jessica Alba :)
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