Pain / The Crash

So, I've been living with chronic back pain for quite a few years now. It's been severe for several of them now.

It all started when I was 19. I was riding as the passenger in a friend's car. We were coming into town at sunset. My friend was looking in the mirror because he thought he had seen a cop car behind us. We were turning in at the store. He made the turn extremely slowly and methodically, for had he not seen a deputy in the mirror behind us?

There was no police car behind us, but what was there was a fully loaded gas tanker diesel truck coming in the opposite direction. The industrial monster locked its brakes in an attempt to not hit us.

My friend never even saw the eighteen-wheeler coming. Well... I did.

Time seemed to slow way down for me. It was as if the beast was moving at a ridiculously slow speed. I was trying to warn the driver. Let's call him Dick for anonymity's sake. All I could do was yell, "Dick! Dick! Dick! Dick..." Over and over... It seemed like SO many times.

As the truck hit us, time sped back up with a vengeance. I clenched into as tight a ball as I could. It hit the 68 Buick right in the passenger door. I was sitting in the passenger seat. The car was built in the mid-sixties. It had a bench seat, with only a lap belt. The paramedics said that if I had been wearing that seat belt, it would have cut me in half. The passenger door was gone.

Everything exploded like a bomb went off. I, in my balled-up state, bounced off of Dick, knocking his head into the steering wheel and causing a gash in his eyebrow. His only injury, needing 6 stitches.

The Buick went into a spin-out, bouncing like a pool ball in the break. Glass exploded in from all directions. As the car spun, I flew out of the opening where the door had been nanoseconds before.

When everything came to a stop, I was on the ground on my knees. My right hand was covering the right side of my face. My left arm was above my head, with my forearm braced against the smashed side of the car. It had been pushing me across the ground, through the broken glass. If I had been a couple of feet to the right, I would have been smashed between the car and the stop sign.

I jumped up, onto my feet. I started trying to say things, but only one phrase would come out of my mouth.

I tried to ask Dick if he was alright, but my mouth shouted, "OH FUCK!"

I tried to ask him why he turned in front of a semi, but my mouth shouted, "OH FUCK!"

I tried saying several more things. The same result happened every time.

I spotted a pair of headlights shining straight at me. The car was parked in front of JD's Fish & Chips. I took off running for the car. I can't tell you why.

Just so happens that there was a cop on the scene after all. He was just parked in front of JD's instead of behind us.

To be continued...

Thank you for giving me your time,

Bugzy Malone