Sunday, August 5, 2007

The other night...

I went to a musical at the little theatre with a friend. The plot contained drama, action, mystery, tragedy and a bunch of comedy. We giggled, chortled and maybe even snorted, once or twice, through the entire production. The musical was extremely well staged, well acted, and well sung.

Uniquely, a line that drew the most laughs was, "It's so sad to be all alone in the world." Bitter poignancy in an Asian accent marked the delivery as memorable.

As we left the theatre, talking, still laughing, the stop sign quieted us for a minute. Both of us are nervous night drivers. Together we looked right, left, and right again before I pulled out to the all clear center turn lane.

Suddenly, a pickup and bright headlights were bearing down, nearly on top of us.

"What's that?" "Oh my goodness!" "Where did he come from?"

My foot fumbled for the brake, heart pounding, and then my racing mind slowed down to urge, "Hit the gas! Swerve! To the right!"

Bewildered, shaking, still acknowledging the intensity of a near disastrous miss, prayerful thanks to God were given with short breath. Reconstructing the stop and the turn, neither of us in looking had noticed him coming from the right, left or right again. But skid marks at a stop sign just caddy corner from us went straight through the stop into the road, implying perhaps that no stop was actually made by the pickup with bright headlights.

Shaking off a near miss takes awhile. Later that night, lying safely beside my husband, again I replayed the scenes. Grasping, reaching out at what I might have done to cause it or prevent it, I finally fell asleep with images of the play in my head and a pickup truck's bright headlights bearing down on the stage.

It's so sad to be all alone in the world.

2 comments:

  1. I am so thankful you and your friend are okay!

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  2. Close calls stay with me for a long time...glad you're safe!

    ReplyDelete