2015-06-04

I was young and dumb once too.

I often found myself driving outside my range of skill and talent. I also understood that falling is part of learning to walk. Or drive, as it were. There was an instance where I suffered the brunt of someone else's inexperience. It wasn't fatal, no one was injured, so this isn't a horror story - just one of those times where the universe just kinda tugs on your reins a little to let you know who's still in charge. I had just come to a stop after driving through a fun little industrial section near where I lived at the time. It was a rather.. spirited drive. I was stopped, waiting for the light to change, so I could make a left turn. I looked up in my rear view mirror, and I saw two kids in a Mazda MPV. Like slow motion, the driver had a panicked look on his face, and you could tell his cheeks were puckered, both hands on the wheel, wide-eyed, and mouth agape mid-word I'm sure I shouldn't repeat. And his passenger had the same face, but with the lack of a wheel to grab onto, was all flailing arms, trying to find something to brace against. Then came the sound. SCREEEEEEE-And then the impact-CRUNCH. Somewhere in there, I had told my passenger to hold on to something. The damage to my truck was minor. Crunched my tailgate a bit. It still closed. I pocketed the insurance money in favor of movies or a good time or something, I'm sure.

But it's funny how lasting an impression such a small moment can have on your life. To this day, whenever I get the impression that the person behind me is approaching a little too rapidly, or isn't paying attention, I look up in the rear-view mirror, and still see those two kid's faces, and flailing arms, and I wait for the crunch.

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