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It was a Sunday.
The night before, two of my roommates and I had stayed up late hanging out.
When we woke up the next morning the three of us were lethargic and ready for a lazy Sunday.
Which is precisely what we did.
Around 5:00, I got hungry.
Aubree was asleep, so I texted her, Facebook-ed her, and came into her room several times to get her to wake up.
I wanted to get food.
Chelacie was Skyping with her family, so I wrote a note on our "Announcements" white board, and held it up to her.
"We're gonna go get food. Wanna come?"
She nodded her head at me as she continued to talk to her family.
Around 6:30, I got impatient.
I went into Aubree's room and turned on her lights.
"Allllllllright, time to get up. I'm going to die of hunger."
Aubree sat up with her eyes half open. She ran her hands through her hair, sighed, and got out of bed.
I walked to the living room, where Chelacie was.
She was saying goodbye to her family, via webcam.
"Good timing, Aubree's finally awake." I commented as she closed her laptop.
Chelacie walked into our room, to get dressed and asked "Where are we going?"
"Not sure," I said, "Wherever. I'm just super hungry."
Chelacie thought about it for a moment.
"What aboooouuuuut...... Red Robins? Their fries are so good."
We all agreed.
Red Robins it was.
Aubree turned to me.
"Can you drive?"
"Sure."
~~~
Dinner was delicious.
We made sure to box our bottomless stake fries with fry sauce, and Aubree boxed her left over mac & cheese.
We walked out to my car full and happy.
We laughed about the little kid at the table next to us who had a huge head,
Chelacie and Aubree fought over shotgun,
I announced we needed to get gas, or we wouldn't make it home.
We began to drive.
As we made our way down University Avenue, Aubree mentioned that one of her friends was getting his tattoo tonight.
She said that she always promised she'd be there, and that we should stop by.
The tattoo place was near where we were contemplating getting ice cream, so I obliged.
Besides, I enjoyed the guys who were going to be there and wanted to see them.
We drove up the on ramp to the freeway.
Aubree mentioned how it felt incredibly late.
"What time is it?" I asked.
"Like 8:00" someone replied.
"Holy eff? Why does it feel like it's midnight? The sun is going down way too early."
Then it happened.
Utah County is famous for its atrocious traffic and construction.
As we almost entered the freeway, the road curved.
Orange cones where everywhere.
The road looked like it might have split, and the amount of cones confused me.
I couldn't see where to curve with the road.
So I went straight.
We drove between two barrels, and onto the construction site.
It was loose gravel and dirt, and we began to swerve.
I tried to get back onto the actual road.
The way the construction was set up, there was a drop off where the road and dirt met up.
Almost like a ledge.
A very sharp, very jagged ledge.
We ran into it, and onto the road for a moment.
The ledge did something strange to my tire (I'm not entirely sure what) and we began to fishtail.
I tried to control the car.
We drove back onto the construction site, and the sharp drop off threw our car out of control.
We fishtailed to the point where we were spinning. We spun to the point where we were sliding. We slid to the point where we flipped.
It was slow and quiet as my little white Chevy Cavalier turned on its left side and landed on the hood.
I don't even remember thinking anything as it happened.
I just remember thinking
"Oh my gosh. This is happening."
The car finally stopped.
Everything sped up.
Chelacie was already reaching over and opening her door asking if everyone was okay.
Aubree was looking around making sure everyone was still in tact.
I was hanging upside down by my seatbelt.
Aubree told me to hold myself up, as she unbuckled me.
My arms shakily came out in front of me and made sure my weight didn't fall on the car.
Chelacie had exited the car at this point.
Aubree told me we had to go out the back door.
She crawled in front of me, towards the back.
As I was crawling I realized "Holy shit. We're on the roof. We're crawling on the roof."
We got out, and all asked each other if everyone was fine.
I looked back at my car.
It was completely upside down.
"Oh my fucking hell...."
I turned around to Aubree and Chelacie.
"I'm so sorry," was the only thing I could think of saying.
We hugged as we all began to cry.
I continued to apologize profusely as cars began to stop and run over to us.
"Is everyone okay?" they'd always ask.
We were all fine.
How were we all fine?
We just flipped the car.
Aubree and Chelacie weren't wearing their seat belts.
This thought sank in.
They weren't wearing their seat belts...
I began to cry and apologize more.
Within minutes, the cop came and whisked me to his car to fill out paper work.
I saw Chelacie and Aubree blowing warm air into their cold hands as they called people.
I couldn't believe what had just happened.
It didn't feel real.
It didn't feel like it actually happened.
I walked out to my car. The windshield was a touch away from exploding on our faces.
The driver side window had completely folded and shattered.
Everything in my car was thrown around and on the ceiling.
I crawled through my car and gathered things I needed immediately.
I was shaking.
We were all shaking.
And we were safe.
No one had a single injury.
Not a scratch or a bruise.
(We would find this not to be true by the next morning.)
But at the time...
We were fine.
And it was amazing.
And it was terrifying.
It was terrifying to think of what could have happened.
How much worse it could have been.
When it was already so bad.
I didn't want to think about it.
It's now Tuesday.
We are all sore, and have found a number of cuts and bruises and bumps we didn't know we had.
I still feel emotionally strange and hate to think of the responsibility I had in the situation.
My hands shake at the thought of it.
But we're all safe.
And we're all here.
And I know without a doubt that the fact that we're all okay is more than just a coincidence.
It was the scariest thing I have ever experienced in my life.
But it was an experience that I think was necessary.
For what reason, I'm not sure yet.
But it's comforting to know that as major the accident seemed, we're safe and alive to prevent something worse from happening in the future.
And for that I'm grateful.
I'm scared. But I'm grateful.
- Adriana
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2 comments:
I'm so glad you are okay.
Hey thanks, I appreciate it.
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