a crunch in the night

after a long saturday at the brush, i left work intending on getting a lot of sleep before a long sunday at the brush. my friend samantha (sam) asked for a lift home. i obliged since she's so nice to me. i was in the left lane on Mcdonald parkway, driving along minding my own business when out of nowhere comes this red honda. the road was wet as it was sprinkling. i slammed on the brakes, and so did he. i thought, 'we're not gonna hit, we're not gonna hit, we're not gonna hit'. we hit. the crunch is a killer. it's one of those noises you never forget. i remember that first crunch 11 days after i got my liscence when i totaled my first car. and that crunch a year later when i rear ended someone in my mustang. that crunch that's so loud you want to cry.

we immediately pulled over to the side, thinking it best to get out of the way on such a busy road. it was 11:30 at night, but it was still pretty busy. i couldn't stop cursing and yelling.. and shaking. my passenger called the police, she had had her phone in hand. for a minute i thought the red honda was going to drive away, but they didn't.

i was going 45. i would estimate they were going about 35. i expected my car to be crunched all to hell. i expected to be missing a headlight, and there to be a big fold in my hood. but i couldn't look. i couldn't. i was too scared to see my baby, the black pearl, all busted up. when the policemen, EMS, and firemen showed up i was really scared.

a minute after sam called the cops, she realized she had bumped her head on my seat. then she started to hurt. The EMS people checked her out and said she should go to the hospital. a fireman was asking me questions. i asked him one, "so how bad is it?" He walked around for a minutes, inspecting, checking the front and both sides. then, he came back and said "minimal at most". Really? Really?

Turns out it was only a scratch. very very very minor. but the way we hit and as hard as we hit, it should have been crunched. it should have been awful. my airbags should have deployed and both me and sam should be in awful pain. but somehow, that wasn't the case.

since it was the other car's fault, they got a ticket. since my car was driveable, having only sustained a scratch and a misalignment, i drove sam to the hospital myself, saving an EMS fee, even though the other car's insurance would pay for it. since we were both wearing our seatbelts, we were relatively okay. she had bad whiplash, and on sunday my back hurt a little. we left the scene at 12:15.

when we got to the hospital we didn't have to wait TOO long. the doctors did x-rays, and all that good stuff for sam. i waited til about 1:30, when my manager at sagebrush, angie, showed up to relieve me and told me to go home. she is a very caring woman. she stayed there to wait for sam. when sam was in the hospital getting cancer treatments a few months ago, she stayed with her then, too.

i got home at 1:30 am. i immediately went to bed, but obviously, couldn't sleep. it had been a long night, and with the next day promising to be the busiest day of the year at the brush (mother's day) i was anticipating awfulness.

i was right.