The hot air of the day was starting to cool off. The lake was perfect, smooth. Nothing could disturb the setting sun and the reflection it cast off the water. It was a quiet evening. Hardly any cars and I remember the lead up perfectly...
We stopped to let the dogs out. First stopping right off the side of the road but he pulled up further towards the lake where people dropped off their boats. I pulled the dogs from the back of the truck and walked them towards the water. Our Yellow lab went in for a swim. She drank and lapped at the water and I picked up a stick about to throw it for her. He yelled for me not to, not to make the dogs too wet. That's when I heard the sound of a car revving.
Now, everytime I hear that sound I cringe. I hear the loud crash of metal snapping, tires blowing and glass shattering across cement. I hear this even of that part never comes. All because I was there one day when it did.
I looked up to see this black car fly around the corner and then that death shattering noise as it collided with a telephone pole, a parked car and at the end of it's last stop an iron boat extractor, that did not budge, but formed the car around it.
My breath stopped momentarily. Then I screamed for him. My husband. These people were im trouble. He grabbed gloves from his door and ran.
He ran to the car and I watched a girl stumble towards me. Her long brown hair strewn, her timy frame wrapped in bruising, scrapes and tinges of blood. She wore only a bathing suit.
At first I was confused. I thought maybe she had been near the car. But she clung to me. Crying. And her voice shakingly repeated the same haunting sentence, "i was screaming at them to stop... They wouldn't let me out. I was screaming at them to stop..."
As i sat her down away from the mangled car, i quickly realized she'd been in the car and had climbed from the wreckage in nothing but a bikini. Her shoes had been thrown from her feet.
There I looked up as I let her cry on my shoulder. He was standing over the boy, angled into the new convertable top that was exposed.
I heard this odd sound. A low groaning grunt. It was unfamilar. No, it was horrid. Unnatural. That boy was not okay. He was holding his neck up, pinching his collar bone. He moved to the driver. Slumped over and unconcious. He pressed a hand to him an he woke. Then I heard the driver start yelling at him, "dont touch me! Fuck, my car! My car!"
He walked towards me and when he did fully reach me, he pulled me from the girl, "dont look at that car, dont go near that car..."
I was a bit blurry eyed and I moved towards the girl, "why? Are they ok?"
He pulled my hand and stopped me, "no. That boy is dead. Dont go over there. Do you understand?"
I nodded and he left me with her to tend back to the driver. Who was slumped from his car and uttering anger.
I remember that moment so clearly as he returned to the car. There were now onlookers and one was yelling, "thats why i dont drive small cars, fuck this is stupid!" he kept yelling. Shouting this outloud. He stopped after looking over the driver and stood, "you need to stop, man. These kids arn't okay!"
The man stopped. Backed away and stood to the side. More by standers collected over the half hour it took to get fire there. When they showed they left him in charge, " you know more than us. Were just volunteer."
It was 45 minutes till ambulance & police showed up. The victims were airlifted to vamcouver hospital. And all the while I stared out across a quiet, soft day. How could something like this happen right in front of me...
After all this, he walked to me, "are you okay?"
I nod. Its done. What more is there? He's stripping the bloody gloves and Im watching him. So calm. Collected. This man is something I have never witnessed. He is strong. Caring. More than what he thinks he is. Capable. Smart. And yet he's a bus driver... A cushy carreer in theroy, but this carreer gives nothing back to him. It strips him of these qualities.demeans his true abilities. Sets him back, alone and unable to help others.
It wasn't till months after that he came to me and said he'd been thinking of his original dream again. That he'd found his motivation. He needed to be a paramedic and though he had no idea at the time of how he'd do it. He said he would. I said I would. I wanted to stand beside that same brave, caring and gentle man I had witnessed months before. Even as that boy slipped away in his arms, I know he tried all he could at the time. He now knows he did do all he could. The boy had been in cardic arrest. Internal hemorranging and crushes pelvis and femers. He said he remebered examing him and his
hips moved similar to how tony rocks would in a bag. He told me on sceen he was gone. He looks back and knows he was gone.
I look back and see how fast life can change. How in a blink of an eye you are a living breathing person then nothing but bloody skin and broken bones.
This life can be taken away in an instant. That is why we must cherish it. Love. Laugh & stay together. to keep the good and rid the bad. To do what we dream and never settle for less. And most of all be happy. Cause forever is a long time unhappy.
I look back and see that photo of the sunset. How calm that evening was. The winds never picked up like they usually do. Maybe it was that boy saying good bye....
