It was a quiet night on highway 109. Debbie was reminiscing about the many nights that her husband had driven her down this road. It was the quickest way to his mother’s house. They had spent many evenings there, enjoying the home cooking. Birthdays were the best. She glanced in the rear view mirror to look at her two boys. Both still had ice cream on their faces from the birthday dinner at Grandma’s. She couldn’t help but smile when she looked at them. They were only babies.
One was four years old and the other was six. “They sure love their grandma” she thought.
They both seemed to be getting sleepy, so she reached for the radio to turn the music down. It was one split second..Just a simple gesture. But it was all that was needed for the Oldsmobile in the other lane to cross the line, without her noticing.
In a blinding flash, her life had changed forever. The sound of twisting metal and the screams that had escaped her lips almost drowned out the pain. Soon, things were quiet again. The smell of anti freeze and gasoline lingered and she looked around at what seemed like a metal cage. The thing that held her down was no longer recognizable as a car. It was dark outside and her thoughts seemed fuzzy. Confused, she crawled from the heap of destruction and began to crawl up the embankment. Just as she reached the top, she could see the other car, mangled.
She heard the sounds of sirens as they raced down the country road. Within seconds an EMT had approached her and asked her to sit down. They began asking questions. She could hardly think of the answers. Soon she began to come to her senses. She bolted up from the ground and began to scream. “My babies!” One of the fireman on scene tried to calm her down, but she had become hysterical. She was still screaming and trying to escape back down to what was left of her car when a police officer approached her.
“Everything okay over here?” he said. “My babies..Somebody help my babies!” Her knees began to buckle. The officer looked relieved said “Don’t worry Miss. Your little boys are fine. They’re in the back of my squad car. Not a scratch on em’. The young mother seemed confused as the officer continued to speak.
“They told me that their Daddy helped them up the embankment and told them to sit there and wait for us. He gave them a blanket and told them not to worry.” I’m guessing he fled the scene because their father is nowhere to be found. Was he drinking tonight?”
The woman ignored his question as she ran towards her boys who were sitting in the back seat of the squad car, smiling. When she wrapped her arms around them, they said “Don’t worry Mommy. Dad told us that everything that would be alright. He put us in this car with the pretty flashing light and gave us a kiss. He said that he had to go. We were sad because we wanted him to stay. He said that we would understand one day and that he loved us.” The woman was sobbing uncontrollably now, as the officer approached her again and said “Miss, I really need to know why your husband fled the scene.”
The woman looked at him with tears in her eyes and said, “My husband could not have fled the scene..He’s been dead for over a year now. We were just leaving his mother’s house where we were having dinner for his birthday. The first one since he’s been gone.”
The officer didn’t know what to say. He couldn’t help but feel the goosebumps rising on the back of his neck. He walked away unsure about what to write in his report. Nobody could explain how the three of them walked away from the twisted heap at the bottom of that embankment without a scratch on them. He hesitated for second, but finally decided to write the first line.. “An angel walked the beat tonight on HWY 109”.
