Today, while driving back from a beach in New Jersey through Staten Island, my girlfriend was giving me a hard time for not talking. I explained to her I was a bit tired, tired from all that sun, tired of the sweat on my ass chafing with sweat, tired and in a state of concentration as I was wary of all the stop and start traffic. I was fatigued and I wanted to get home quickly, and safely. Don't you know within minutes of explaining this a car a few lengths in front of us in the center lane rear ended a black SUV. I witnessed this in the right lane going along at a snails pace. Alerted when I heard that particular sound of a bumper snapping against bumper and as I maneuvered to get ahead and out of the way with bits and pieces of car detailing strew across the lanes, I could see the woman so clearly, who did the rear-ending. Her face was resting on the air back looking like she fell asleep while laughing. Time slowed down and I saw her so clearly, so surreally. Her one upper front tooth looked a bit snaggled as it slightly indented the large white bladder on her steering wheel.
In the moment I had all my wits about me and I over took them carefully and pulled in the shoulder to see if they needed help. In the rearview mirror I watched the SUV pull to the side of the road and as if her car was stuck to it, it followed the same trajectory until the SUV driver straightened out, and that lady in her car kept going down into a shallow reedy ravine until it disappeared in the high grass. A few other cars, were already pulled over and a few guys were getting out to help, hunky FDNY looking types, and I thought to myself what use will this scrawny man be? So I drove on home a bit fixated on that expression on her face which rested on the air bag, hoping that she just passed out momentarily, and that she will be alright. I make no light of this account but it it felt for a second like some discarded scene from a David Lynch film. Something mundane yet surreal and sad, as accidents always are.
In the moment I had all my wits about me and I over took them carefully and pulled in the shoulder to see if they needed help. In the rearview mirror I watched the SUV pull to the side of the road and as if her car was stuck to it, it followed the same trajectory until the SUV driver straightened out, and that lady in her car kept going down into a shallow reedy ravine until it disappeared in the high grass. A few other cars, were already pulled over and a few guys were getting out to help, hunky FDNY looking types, and I thought to myself what use will this scrawny man be? So I drove on home a bit fixated on that expression on her face which rested on the air bag, hoping that she just passed out momentarily, and that she will be alright. I make no light of this account but it it felt for a second like some discarded scene from a David Lynch film. Something mundane yet surreal and sad, as accidents always are.
