February 1, 2005

• I got in a car accident yesterday

  That new road had just opened up, the narrow single-lane one. They told us to be careful, but I had sat in Monica’s car before and I trust her driving, so we went ahead.

  The
  first sign of trouble was when her Honda Civic started going a little
  too fast for my comfort. Not like I obey the speed limit myself, but
  sometimes, that desiretolive kicks in when my brain isn’t functioning.

  I glance over. “Careful there.”

  But
  I guess she didn’t hear. We round a corner fast enough to create
  g-forces that we really shouldn’t have been feeling on such a small
  road…and then we went over the edge on the gravel.

  Ever driven off the road by accident? On a hillside? It’s hellllla
  scary. The ground’s giving way beneath your wheels, you’re struggling
  to get back up to the road while going at 40, 50 mph, and the whole
  time the car is threatening to flip. (Pause. Would Jesus say “hella”? If He was from Nor Cal, I mean.)

  The whole thing took 2, 3 seconds. We should have just stopped. Right there. I don’t know why we kept going.

  Because
  the next thing you know, some pothole sends our car off the shoulder
  again and I grip the wheel to try to right us but we keep slipping and
  going way too fast even though her feet is on the brakes and we keep
  sliding and sliding and someone yells though I think it might be me
  because our car is careening down a service road in the hillside and
  there are workmen serenely digging with the clear Sunday sky overhead
  but I frantically think why can’t they hear us coming because we must
  sound like the sky rolling up as a scroll in Revelations 6:14 so I hit the horn which sends shovels and men scattering but we are doomed anyway since up ahead,

  the   cliff   wasn’t   going   anywhere.
  And we slam into the cliff wall.

  No. Wait. We only have a single hill in Davis. And definitely no cliffs.

  Then I woke up.

  But man, I was drenched in sweat. And it felt d mn real! Plus, we damaged that cliff real bad. And Monica’s car too.

  Epilogue:
  Actually…the story didn’t end there. The workmen pulled us out, and
  they kept looking at me like I was the one driving the car. Hey buddies, I saved your lives, alright? Then we went back and I sat down in a circle with a bunch of my IV and AACF friends and the guys from 108.
  We talked about people we trust to be behind the wheel, and Jeff Yim
  brought up the subject of how God sometimes prepares us for what is
  completely different from what we expect.

  Then I heard some sounds and went to look even though Jenn told me not to: Monica was getting in trouble with her mom for totaling the car.

  • 6:10 am
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