life is precious
mom called and asked if i could go unlock the door for the painters, so i slipped out to my car and crove off to do as she asked. as i was leaving my house and turning right onto tierra rejada from miller parkway i saw a silver explorer sitting in the middle of the intersection facing the barrier as if he'd had car problems and had had to stop. or atleast that's the conclusion i came to. i could see in through the window and the driver kept looking back over his shoulder for the traffic to clear and when it had, he pulled back into the correct lane and continued driving. he stayed within the speed limit for a minute but then ran the next red light and i knew he wasn't ok. as soon as the light turned green i sped up, trying to stay close behind the guy but when i hit 55 and was losing him still i knew he was going far, far too fast. all i could see was the explorer continually hitting the divider and huge clouds of dirt and dust flying into the air from the impact. he must have done this four or five times, and when i rounded the corner there was a beaten explorer lying on its side surrounded by shattered glass and a number of personal belongings, and a man lying on the sidewalk. i was terrified: i thought he'd hit a pedestrian and all that went running through my mind was "god, they have to be dead, they have to be dead, they have to be dead." his car had hit the divider one last time, he'd lost control, had flipped, and had flown through his windshield and skidded across the sidewalk. i dont know how i stopped, how my car got locked, i wasn't breathing, i wasn't thinking, i just went running. i reached the man just as a lady in a pink shirt was crouching down to inspect his head and a guy in blue was pulling off his shirt to stop the flow of blood, we were the first three on the scene. i've never seen so much blood in my entire life...the man's head had been broken open along the top. i ran back to my car, grabbed a jacket and ran back and the three of us lifted his head and stuffed my jacket underneath, applying pressure with the shirt above. his eyes were bleeding but closed, it looked like he was crying tears of blood and his breath was short and gasping and it sounded wet..he was choking. the lady in pink asked him if he could hear us and he didn't answer, just coughed wetly one more time and then was silent. i just kept repeating "sir, you're going to be ok, you're going to be okay, just hold on your're going to be okay." then he stopped breathing. and began to turn cold and blue. and lost his pulse. i think he died under my hands. he died under my hands. i couldn't take it and i backed off when the second cop arrived with her medical bag. i just kept watching the widening pool of blood and how my jacket kept turning blacker and blacker, and how it wouldn't stop and how his life was just spilling onto the sidewalk, mixing with all the shattered pieces of glass that glittered wet and black in the sun. the cop took down my name and took my statement, and then matt showed up and hugged me as i got myself under control. somehow i managed to call my mom and make it back to school and when i got into the parking lot i just collapsed into matt's arms. thank you matt, emma, serena, brit, and mrs. whitelaw.