Narrative

I Cheat Death

It was dark. It was dark because I had my eyes closed, as tightly as I could. I gripped the steering wheel, as I felt the shift of gravity. I rolled into a ditch, and was lying on the driver’s side door. I got the courage to open my eyes, and paused to take it all in. I thought, “That really just happened.” I let go of the steering wheel, and looked around me.  I saw random items from inside my Jeep scattered all around me, coins, football gear, mud, and pieces of grass. I was lucky to be alive, and I thought of earlier that night how it had been like any other Friday night.

 

It was a rainy night, and Buckeye Valley just lost at home to River Valley. I was angry because I hated River Valley. I came out of the locker room, and talked to a couple of my friends that stuck around to see if the football players wanted to go out to Buffalo Wild Wings. The rain was just drizzling now, but I could see it was going to get worse.

 

Jack asked, “Hey you wanna get some McDonalds and just take it into BW’s?”

 

“Sure that sounds good on the wallet.” I said. We laughed. He got into his Honda Civic, and I climbed into my Jeep Wrangler.

 

The rain started to pick up, and cracks of lightning flashed across the sky. I followed him down Hills Miller, a windy back road that was a slick from the rain. Jack was three or four car lengths ahead of me. I was going at least sixty five. I had the windshield wipers on full blast. I couldn’t see very well, and on top of that I had the radio blasting AC/DC’s Thunderstruck. The rain was heavy now and I should’ve slowed down, but I didn’t. I banged on the steering wheel like it was a drum set.

“Thunder!” I yelled. We were coming up on a tight curve, and I was going too fast. I slammed on the brakes and turned the wheel, yet I started to hydro plane. The tires made an awful screeching sound. I turned the wheel and skid the other direction. I tried to turn the wheel again, and felt the Jeep start to roll. I closed my eyes, and felt my body go into survival mode. My shoulders tensed prepared for impact. Everything went silent. I hit my head on the driver side door, and things hit me in the face and neck. My chest hurt from the seatbelt. If not for my seat belt though I would've been tossed around like a pinball in a pinball machine. My heart was beating so fast, and I was terrified. The fear gripped my throat making it hard to breathe. With a crash the Jeep rolled, and spun into a ditch on the right side of the road. I had the biggest headache, so I laid there on my side for a while. Still holding the steering wheel, I took big deep breathes to try and calm down. All I could think about was all those stories you heard on the news about the kids out late, and how they get into fatal car accidents. I felt as if I cheated death, and I was lucky to be alive.

The wait for help was unbearable. I felt relieved that I was not hurt in the accident, but I was still afraid of what had happened to me.  I laid there for a while thinking you are so lucky over and over again. Eventually that thought made me angry. “How could I do this?” I thought. “This doesn’t happen to me?” I started yelling at myself, “Stupid!” Outbursts of anger, but I had to stop with the yelling because it made my headache worse. I opened the passenger side window, climbed out, and staggered out of the ditch in the rain. I was soaked and freezing cold, so I crossed my arms trying to keep warm. The ditch was covered with tall grass that was all over the Jeep, and mud was everywhere. The back of the Jeep was crushed, and I realized the only thing that kept me from getting smashed were the roll bars. The tires were off the wheels, and the front bumper was in pieces all over the road. My phone wasn’t in my pocket anymore, so I waited for what seemed like forever until I could flag down a passing car. It was too dark to look for my phone the only light I had were the headlights pointing up into the sky. For all I knew my phone could be in the ditch, or in the farm field on the other side of the road. The survival feeling started to die down, and I started to feel the aches and pains. It was impossible to tell if they were from the accident or the game I played in earlier. All that mattered to me was I was still alive.

Eventually I flagged down a car, and they called the police. The officers asked me the usual questions like were you drinking tonight, did you have your seatbelt on, and do you need to go to the hospital? My parents picked me up, and were glad to see I was alright. That night was the most terrifying experience I’ve ever had.