Car Crash
It was a good Wednesday night. I had driven 60 miles to a town that holds a weekly poker night. It's always worth the trip, I've gotten to know everyone there and made some great friends. I spent three hours playing poker and tonight I had made it to the final table. I often make it to the final table but I've never came first before. Would my luck change tonight? - I was heads up with someone, I was finishing at least second! People who had been already knocked out (many of whom were drunk and chatting loudly) surrounded us waiting eagerly to find out who would win.
The cards got dealt, and I look down at mine. Pocket aces. YES! I've got this.
"All in"
My opponent stalls to consider his options and finally announces it...
"Call. King King. DAMN! Of all times for you to get pocket aces!"
The rest of the cards come out. Two more Aces! I've won! What a fantastic night. Everyone knows that I travel a long way to be there, through country roads before hitting the motorway. After the motorway it's simple, but on the country roads it requires concentration. They all think I'm crazy but it's worth the trip.
I jump in my car, turn the key and start driving home. I pass the familiar houses and shops lit by street lights, before the street lights stop, houses stop and country road is all that lays ahead. I hit the second familiar town on the road. Again, the familiar houses and shops lit by street lights. Again, eventually the street lights stop and the road turns into the familiar winding country road.
I approach yet another familiarity. I know this road so well now. A cottage followed by a bend in the road maybe 1/4 of a mile past it. I need to slow down for the bend as it's difficult to negotiate at speed. As I slowly make my way around the bend the trees ahead give way to the bending road, that's when I saw it. Twisting tire tracks at the end of the bend leading to a huge gaping hole in the hedge at the side of the road. There wasn't the familiar Police tape you would see in this situation if the Police had already been here. Without the Police tape I felt exposed and naked. I slowed way down. I could smell burning rubber, this had just happened! What do I do? I can't call the Police if I amn't certain. I need to check it out. I turn the car around and park it on the side of the bend I had just come from, on the wrong side of the road with the hazard lights on. That way, nobody will crash into me, they will see the hazard lights long before the bend. I've always been cautious like that. I consider myself a good and sensible driver.
Car parked, I turn the engine off and turn on my phone's flashlight. I make my way towards the bend. The silence is deafening. No birds, no wind, no animals, not a single car to be heard in the distance. The feeling of the road on my shoes, the sound of the tarmac as I walk on it, the soles of my shoes getting colder, the full moon reflecting against the tarmac. I rarely get to appreciate the reality of the road, I'm usually so hypnotised when driving that I don't even consider the hardness of the tarmac, the coldness of it. Feeling the tarmac with my shoes and not my car's tires feels almost harsh. The sensation is so strange, I'm looking at a dark road lit by the moonlight and my flashlight yet I'm not driving on it, I don't hear the roaring of the engine, the wind passing over the car, the radio...
I reach the end of the bend and it comes into my view, the gaping hole. It seems like an hour has passed when in truth it's all been less than a minute. I don't want to look, but I have to. I need to get closer and pass through the hole. Why? Why me? Why do I have to? Because you know you have to. OK. This is it. I point my flashlight ahead, close my eyes, take a deep breath and pass through the hole. I open my eyes and there it was. "What the fuck?... What the ACTUAL fuck?!". Spiralling tire marks in the grass come to an abrupt end and 10 meters ahead is the tail end of a Ford Focus facing me. Its smashed windows and crumpled aluminium, edges so sharp that that they pierce my retina. I can only just make out the outline of a motionless, silent person inside the drivers seat. "Oh god. What the fuck?". Yet, it was none of this that made me so shaken or nervous. It was the vehicle registration. "SD51 BZL", "SD51 BZL", "SD51 BZL". Every time I read it, it punches me in the face. No, I'm misreading it. It must be SO51, SG51, SQ51? I take one step closer, no. It's SD51. It can't be SD51. "Oh god no".
I can't do it. I can't go to the driver side. I can't take one more step closer. I've already taken one too many steps closer. If I tried I would run into an invisible wall. I just can't.
I don't have a clue what to do. Thoughts are racing in my head but it doesn't take me long to reach a decision; I look at my phone and dial for an ambulance. Tears are beginning to fill my eyes. My chin begins to wobble.
"Emergency which service?"
"Ambulance"
"OK Hold the Line..."
"Ambulance, Pass details please..."
"Yes Hello I...."
"Please hold sir. Operator go ahead"
"Yes call from 0754022100122"
"Standby... All received thank you operator, go ahead caller..."
"Yes, I've come across an accident"
"An accident? What kind of accident? Like on the street? In a house? On..."
"No a car accident"
"OK Where are you?"
"I'm on the B8445"
"OK Where abouts?"
My unfamiliarity of the area suddenly hits me like a bullet in the chest. But five minutes ago I knew this road so well. Shouldn't B8445 be enough? It's enough for me! Why is it not enough for them?
"I... I don't know there's a cottage then there's a bend and I just... I know this road I just..."
"OK sir which town is nearest you?"
"Tauredston I think it's called, it's about 3 miles from me"
"OK and which way were you travelling?"
"Towards New Everett from Tauredston"
"OK and will the ambulance see you?"
"Only if they are travelling the same way I was, they will see my car parked with Hazards on"
"Not a problem sir. The ambulance is on the way now... How many people were involved, were you involved?"
"No. I think just one I just found it... There's just one car in this field... I... I don't understand..."
"Don't understand what sir?"
"How that car could have crashed here"
"What do you mean? Sir we need to focus on the important things, you said, 'just one' do you mean just one person was involved?"
"Yes. I can only see one person in the driver seat"
"Is the person responsive?"
"I don't know I can't get any closer"
"What do you mean?"
"It's difficult to explain, this is impossible. This is fucked up"
"OK sir you can't get any closer? Can you see anyone else? Has anyone been ejected from the car or is it just the one person that's still in the car?"
I hadn't considered this. I don't know if my hands were shaking from the cold or from how frightened I was, I turn my shaking flashlight to the surrounding area.
"I.. I don't know, my light isn't strong enough, I can just see one person's outline in the driver seat"
"OK sir are they making any noise? Are they moving?"
I begin to weep.
"No. No they're not..."
"It's OK sir try to stay calm I know it's difficult"
"I don't understand. YOU don't understand"
"I know sir. It can be difficult we all react in different ways but we need to focus on helping this person"
"How far away is the ambulance?"
"I can't give you that information sir sorry. I need you to get closer to the car. You need to tell me if the driver is conscious and breathing and if they're bleeding"
"I can't"
"Sir I know it's difficult but it would really help me, I need to know this information"
"No you don't understand I can't"
"OK sir... Can you make out the vehicle registration mark?"
"Yes it's SD51 BZL"
"Hold the line a second sir we're trying to contact the Police to attend also"
"OK"
The beeping of being on hold echoing in my mind as my eyes are fixated on the Ford Focus. Beep... I can't take my eyes off of it. Beep... Like a frozen deer I stand staring at what I can make out of the wreckage. Beep... They must be dead. Beep... They're not moving. Beep... Oh god. Beep... OH MY FUCKING GOD! Beep... My breathing is getting faster. Beep... My heart rate increasing. Beep... I feel like my heart is about to beat itself out of my chest. Beep... I can't do it! I can't! I need to get out of here.
"Sir Police are on the way. Is there any safe way at all you could get closer to the car?... Sir?... Hello Sir?... Are you there sir?"
I slowly lift the phone down to look at the display and even more slowly move my thumb towards the red phone symbol. The familiar hang-up tone sounds.
I turn towards the hole in the hedge and slowly walk towards it, all the while aware of the tire marks engraved in the grass like thick cuts in my skin.
I walk over the cold, hard tarmac; over the deadly silent road when the silence is broken by a single siren. Ignorant as a zombie, I jump in my car, turn it around, turn off the hazard lights and begin driving home.
The blue lights get closer to me, closer still. So close now that I'm fixated on the brightest blue LED lights I've ever set my eyes upon, flashing, dazing, mesmerizing. Time felt as if it slowed down as the lights passed me but maybe it was because they were travelling slowly trying to find the the crashed car. I hold my breath and pass them, it's not an ambulance; it's the Police. I look in my mirror and see their brake lights pierce my eyes, a colour so red that I could taste blood. They stopped just behind me as I continued.
"It's got to be here somewhere"
"Maybe it's a hoax call"
"Why would someone hoax this though?"
A car passes the Police car
"WAIT! That car that just passed us! What was the reg plate that control room gave us for this crashed car?"
"SD51 BZL"
"It just passed us!"
"WHAT?!"
The driver of the Police car slams on the brakes.
"That car was fine, that must be the reporter. We'll deal with them later."
The driver once again begins speeding up towards the reported crash.
I never did hear from the Police again or anything about that day. I know I wasn't dreaming. I know what I saw and I have no explanation for it. All I know is that things are different now. Things that I was sure happened prior to that day are no longer still the same. Nelson Mandela didn't die in prison, C3P0's leg was now always silver, Sex AND the City was Sex IN the City, to name but a few... Things are different now. And I accept that.
Credited to Fanta206
| Comments • 0 |
Loading comments...
|
