In the Aftermath of a Car Wreck

On the way to the grocery store, the car in the left lane decided it could osmosis into the space my car occupied in the right hand lane. The breaks wouldn’t stop the car fast enough, they were coming—-I jerked the wheel to the right. I hit the curb and somewhere in the slam of the tire being ripped and the hubcap and a lugnut fly through the freezing air, I saw a piece of my tire beam up into the air through the rearview mirror.

I managed to roll forward and into a uphill inclined parking lot where I let my car rest on its rim. I called for help while looking for the other driver to come back to admit fault. No, they had fleed the scene and the cars who saw it had drove on. I shook from both the cold and shock. It took forever before my boyfriend arrived then my sister and her husband. My brother-in-law made quick work of changing the tire, an hour after the accident had taken place. My left fingers were black from having retrieved the hubcap from next to a light pole. If I had been over 6 more inches, my car would have been a white scrap base for the pole. It’s freezing outside today and my fingers curled and screamed in pain as I rushed about, trying to get the jack ready.

My spare tire, a real tire, not a doughnut, was nearly flat, so I rolled to the gas station while my boyfriend filled it with air. I sat in my car, shaking as I rocked myself back and forth, sobbing while craddling my left hand. The shock had worn off. I can move the fingers but my fingertips are hypersensitive to the touch, painfully so. I drive with my left arm, so my arm took the shock of my body. The rest of me stayed in position.

I’m scared. I think I want to sleep. I’m not sure how to take this.

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Photo later when WordPress quits acting up.