Thirteen years ago, when my husband was my boyfriend, before we had our two beautiful children, two crazy dogs and our forever home, before our degrees and jobs and life together, before we created our happily ever after, we could have lost it all.
***
I was sleeping on the blue leather couch, our first purchase together, and the television was on. Some lady was trying to sell me cheap jewelry on QVC when I was startled from a dream. I looked around, unsure what woke me. I looked outside my 19th floor window onto the empty city streets below. Nighttime lights twinkled in the empty office buildings that dotted downtown.
What time is it?
Something wasn’t right. I looked at the clock.
After 2:00 a.m.?
My boyfriend should have been home by then.
Where is he?
He’d gone out with friends. “A guys’ night out,” he told me. I picked up the cordless phone to call him. His number, our shared cell phone number, was on the caller I.D. three times. I had missed three calls in ten minutes from him.
Was that what woke me? The sound of the phone?
My heart started palpitating and a mass started swelling within the walls of my throat. Before I could dial him back, the phone, again, started to ring.
“Shit,” I gasped. It rang once, twice, three times before I finally gathered enough courage to answer “Hello?”
“Babe,” he responded.
“Where are you? Is everything okay? It’s so late,” the words started falling out of my mouth faster than he could answer.
“I’m at the hospital. There was an accident, but I’m okay” he responded quietly. I dropped the phone, quickly found my shoes and keys and drove to the hospital as fast as I could safely.
***
I ran inside the hospital emergency room and found my boyfriend with a broken arm and scratches across his face and head. Aside from the arm, he had mostly minor injuries.
As it turns out, his friend’s friend, the driver, made the choice to race someone in his souped up car on their way back home from the bar. He didn’t realize a cop was behind him.
The officer tried to pull him over, but he didn’t stop. He thought he could outrun the radio. He raced through parking lots, flying over speed bumps and barely missing pedestrians with his front end. He sped through a 40 mile per hour zone going over 80 miles per hour. He eventually tried to make a turn, to hide on a residential street, only the tires refused to grip the pavement and he spun out, wrapping the back of his Mitsubishi Eclipse around a telephone pole. The wooden beast came crashing through the backseat, where my boyfriend was sitting. If my boyfriend would have been on the other side of the car, he would have been crushed instantly.
A paramedic and firefighter assisted my boyfriend, getting him out of the car. They explained to him that there was a live wire, hanging only two inches from the roof of the car. Had that wire touched it, the three of them would have been electrocuted.
Upon being breathalyzed, it was found that the driver was well beyond the drinking limit.
He offered to be the designated driver.
***
Thirteen years ago, when my husband was my boyfriend, before we had our two beautiful children, two crazy dogs and our forever home, before our degrees and jobs and life together, before we created our happily ever after, we could have lost it all to an idiot, a friend of friend, drunk behind the wheel.
Photo courtesy of Jilbert Ebrahimi/Unsplash
Danielle Dayney 
Scary. Thanks for sharing — it’s amazing all of those little moments when everything could have gone awry.
LikeLiked by 1 person
OMG!!! that’s horrendous. I really despise people like that driver whose egos are so big they forget common decency; like that other people’s lives could be at risk. I’m so glad that your boyfriend was okay (as much as he was) and that he went on to become your forever man. wheww. it doesn’t bear thinking about.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I am happy for you that you didnt lose all this beautiful stuff to a drunk driver. there is so much drama and feelings in this peice and the way u wrote it is what makes it more readable.
LikeLike
This paragraph is such a great model for how to write setting in a short-form piece – sketching out the important edges of the picture, trusting the reader to fill in the gaps: “I was sleeping on the blue leather couch, our first purchase together, and the television was on. Some lady was trying to sell me cheap jewelry on QVC when I was startled from a dream. I looked around, unsure what woke me. I looked outside my 19th floor window onto the empty city streets below. Nighttime lights twinkled in the empty office buildings that dotted downtown.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Cindy! Looking back I wish I would have described the way I was feeling driving the car too. I skipped over it, because I honestly don’t even remember the drive. I must’ve blocked it from my memory. But I remember the minutes before with such crispness. Glad that part came through with my scene setting.
LikeLike
This is a really nice clean piece and a good illustration of how much can be told with not so many words. Glad everything is ok – drink driving is the epitome of selfishness and I’m relieved this story ended without a tragedy.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks! And yes, I still get chills when I think of how horrible it could have ended.
LikeLike
Your’ beautiful soul…
‘As with the sweetest taste of our first ever Kiss, and kisses as are forever etched within our hearts’ so are those first ever racing beats of hearts of shared’ of hello’s and silences’ etched within our minds and souls. Of such sweetest taste we shall our lips always taste’ and of such beating passionate hearts’ the moments which become part of our souls’ intertwined and hearts as beating in tandem beats…
and so’ thus is our canvas thus is are our souls…
and sweetest taste…
‘Danielle’ Your beautiful children and your’ two crazy Dogs are the canvas’ of your souls indeed…
Thank you for sharing of your life and writings as life expressed…
Here is one of my many favorite Quotes’: unknown’
~ Life is not measured by the
– Number of breaths we take’ –
– ‘But by the number of moments –
‘that take our breath away’.
‘ Cheers my friend…
LikeLiked by 1 person
What a frightening story. Near misses scare the bejesus out of me. I’m so very happy that idiot friend of a friend didn’t wreck your life. Great framing of the piece with the similar start and finish. And great use of the short form of storytelling!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Aww, thanks Melony! First time trying the framing thing. Glad it worked for you 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow, Danielle! You’ve brought out the fragility of life so beautifully in this piece. It’s scary how our entire lives balance on the choices we make. I’m so glad everything turned out okay.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Hema! That day will forever be imprinted into my brain.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The way you explain it really takes you to the moment. Thank you for causing me to pause and appreciate everything I have today.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I am extremely glad and so happy for you and entire family that everything got okay after it.Drinking and driving is such a lethal combination.
LikeLiked by 1 person