Jefferson Road: A Short Story

I drive down that road every day, it never changes. Jefferson Road is the route that I take to get to school every day. It has the same curve and the same road signs every time I drive on it, but I still crashed. When my grandparents said that I would never understand what it would feel like to know what life is really about until it hit me in the face, they were right.
It was November 30, 2015and I had been driving down Jefferson road, like I always do, when the front passengers side tie rod broke. It threw me into a field and flipped my car of a total of 3 times. I could hear the glass break and I felt the car go upside down, once, twice, three times in a row. I remember closing my eyes and getting as low as possible.
When I opened my eyes,
I unbuckled my seat belt and reached for my phone. My first thought was I had to call my grandma. When she answered the phone I lost it. Tears ran down my cheeks as I cried talking to her. The sound of her voice was comforting.
After talking to my grandmother for five minutes, I had to kick the door open, which took several minutes. Once I was free a nurse who had been driving by had called 911 and helped me out of my car the rest of the way. She sat with me until the firefighters had arrived. It took them a matter of seven minutes to get to me. She talked to me about how beautiful the day was to try and keep my mind off what had happened.
I am not type of person to ask for help. I am usually the person who will deny it. Although I will help others as much as possible first. That day all I wanted was for the firefighters and police to help me. I wanted someone to take me home and hit the reset button on the day.
My first instinct was to cry, but I told myself that if I cried, it would take longer to tell anyone what had happened. My head felt like someone had hit me with a hammer, my arm was bleeding because I had cut it while trying to get out of the car and I had bruises all over my body. I answered all the questions proving I did not have a concussion. Even though I did not seem to have any neck or head injuries, the firemen still put a neck guard on me so I didn’t injure myself any further.
My once 2002 ford torus was now a pile of smashed metal and glass. Looking at my car brought so many emotions. Sadness because it had been my first accident. Madness, because now I had to, yet again, buy another car. Joy, because I had a ligament reason to not go to work or school. Fear, because I didn’t know what my family was going to do. Realizing that I could have died, but I walked away.
It felt like hours, but it was really only ten minutes, when my grandmother finally arrives to the scene. She immediately ran up to me and hugged me. I could hear the panic in her voice and the tears came out once again. We stayed like that, tangled in each other’s arms, until my grandfather came running. He was screaming “I’m her grandfather, Dammit let me see her you mother fuckers!” I smiled for the first time since this whole thing started. Only because I knew that my grandpa wasn’t mad at me he was worried and I felt loved.
My grandparents rode with me to Allegiance, the hospital in Jackson, where I spent the next eight hours. I only made it to the ER because I was not committed to the hospital. The doctor, who till this day I still cannot pronounce his name, examined me and had me answers questions again to prove I did not have a concussion. Once he was done, he told me to wait for some pain medication to take the pain I was feeling away.
We sat in the room for five minutes before my older brother DJ came bursting through the door. He had the biggest grin on his face once he saw that I was okay. “You looked better before the accident!” was the only thing he could say to me. He sat quietly in the room the rest of the time.
Three hours and two pain pills later the doctor came in and yet again asked me the same questions. This time he said he wanted me to get X-rays of my head and neck to make sure everything was okay.
As soon as the doctor left my other older brother Jimmy, also my boss at work, came rushing in. I am the manager at the Marco’s Pizza in Brooklyn, Michigan. Jimmy hugged me and whispered that my shift had been covered so I did not need to come to work the next few days. I smiled and he then pinched my arm to make sure I was not dreaming. I still do not know why he did that, but I do not question him.
Two hours of talking to my brother Jimmy and my grandparents went by when my mother and stepfather Bill came in. I get the tightest hug of my life for at least five minutes. Then she sat on the bed the rest of the time that I am in the room.
A nurse finally came in to take me to the X-ray. Once I was in the room they told me to look up, it hurt, down, it hurt, side to side, it hurt, and finally straight ahead with my eyes closed, this one was not painful. It took a matter of minutes to get me in and out of the X-rays then I was rushed back to the room with my family.
We waited one hour for a little Asian man to come in and do an ultrasound of my lungs to make sure I was okay. Once he left, we stayed in the room for another two hours until the doctor came in and told me that everything was okay and I could leave.
The drive home was silent.
I was squished between my two brothers and my phone was going crazy from people texting and face booking me about what had happened. All I remember after we got home is, I walked inside to have my dog Princess jump into my arms. I fell on the floor and fell asleep. I woke up the next morning in the same spot with my dog in my arms.
I still don’t talk about what happened. My gut goes into knots every time I have to bring it up. My family and I have become closer and I love that we have. Now we talk to each other instead of hiding things. We communicate.
My accident has made me stronger. I can now face my fears because I “defied death”. Not many people can say that they would have walked away. I still am not sure how I did. All I know is that I now look at life differently. Since my car accident last year I look at life with my head held high and a smile on my face, instead of hanging my head down and staying in the background. My car accident changed my life for the better and I am very glad that it did.
It only took me fourteen days to recover from the accident. I had a small cut on my left elbow that is now a sensitive scar. I also had a strain in my neck on the right side and it still hurts if I turn my head too fast to the right. Other than whip lash and busies everywhere I was completely fine. I was wearing a seat belt which saved my
life.