We were almost killed yesterday.
It sounds so drama-queen to say that, but it's true. Our little family came this close to being wiped out.
We were coming back from exploring the little community by the Maine border where my daughter will be starting her internship soon. Jon and I had been bickering about this and that, as we do. (We were not nicknamed "The Bickersons" many years ago for nothing.)
I fell asleep as Jon drove (as I always do) and somehow he missed our exit off the expressway. We drove almost 20 miles before we realized our mistake. I think my exact words when I awoke were, "Where the hell ARE we??" We had to drive even further until we could turn around.
So when we finally came to our exit, we were going a little too fast. The guy exiting ahead seemed to be going a little too slow.
He actually came to a full stop at the yield sign. Jon, already embarrassed and impatient from our detour, suddenly swerved to go around him.
And just as he did, I saw an explosion of blue-green on the left as an oncoming car swerved around US.
The guy who was "too slow" was stopped for a reason--he was yielding to the speeding car we never even saw til it blew past us. That car was going too fast, too. He swerved just in time to miss us. Just in time.
If he hadn't swerved, we would have been hit broadside, probably killing Jon and Doug. Then slammed into the other car, crushing Robin and I. At the speed he was going, there's no doubt in my mind we all would have died.
There was no time, no time to do anything at all. In the blink of an eye, it would have been over. No time to say, "I'm sorry" or "I love you". The little scream I squeaked out came only after it was all played out. We never even saw the other car til it was all over.
I felt like we had crossed a fine line. Before....After
A tenth of a second could have changed everything.
But nothing had happened. Life was just the same.
We drove on in stunned silence, not a little mollifed. A lot of "if's" thundered threw my mind. If another car had been in the oncoming lane, the other car wouldn't have been able to swerve around us. If he'd been distracted at just that instant.... If we'd been going even a smidgeon faster...
It took awhile before we could talk about it, and I think we're still a little shaken.
Everything we'd been on edge about, everything we'd been worried about, everything we'd been annoyed about, paled before this simple fact: In a second, your life can change.
In the end, when we got home, Jon did what he does that always wins my heart forever. He simply hugged me until I could feel all my fear and anger drain away. We talked a little about it, but there's really nothing more to say.
It could have been terrible. But it wasn't.
Today everything seems like business as usual. All too soon, the life lessons fade away, and we're back in the groove again. Phones ringing, duties calling, back to arguing who gets the remote when we watch Star Trek.
Even so, the sky looks a little bluer today. I feel a little kinder, a little more patient with myself and others.
And life seems a little sweeter.
