Ch.22
A Setback
Ann called me
not more than 4 hours into their trip and informed me they had an accident with
the van and it was totaled. They were all right and should be out of the
hospital soon and that lee was injured but not badly.
“What happened?” I
asked Ann.
“Lee was stopped
at a light and a truck rear ended us and shoved us through a busy intersection
and over a bank into a ditch. I just have a few scrapes and lee has a gash
where his leg went up against the dash. We almost took out the front window
when we hit the bottom of the ditch as we were still moving that fast. I had my
feet up against the dash and a seat belt on so I wasn't hurt as bad as Lee. These
vans are nothing compared to the semi. That asshole claimed he never saw our brake
lights, but the light was red , and
witnesses stated he never hit the brakes till he was on us . We think he fell
asleep at the wheel. Anyhow they are drug testing him and impounding his and
our vehicle to investigate, and we will need a ride home and a chance to
regroup, “
“Be right there
as soon as I find out where there is , you still haven’t told me where you are
. And did you ever make it to the guy who was teaching tree climbing?” I asked.
“That is where
we were, in college corner, Ohio, which
is on the state line between Ohio and Indiana. We had stopped to check our
location and we had just pulled back on to the road. They took us both to McCullough
Hyde Memorial Hospital in nearby Oxford, Ohio. I found us a motel room for the
night and have a taxi to get us there. Maybe you could head out tomorrow
morning and pick up us and our stuff. Unfortunately the van is toast and anyhow
they want to keep it for a while to do testing on the brake lights. Now imagine
this will you Guy , we were hit on exactly the Ohio side of the line and ended
up in Indiana , knocked us clean out of the state , and now both are claiming
jurisdiction , and both will investigate. Twice the paperwork and what if one finds
one way and the other another. We may need a Supreme Court decision. Sounds
like lawyer feeding territory to me.”
I laughed, only
to ease Ann’s concern, and then she continued as she was on a roll now. “Do you
remember the hypothetical question if a plane crashed on the Ohio and Indiana border
where would the survivors be buried ? Of course there is an obvious answer and
won’t cheat you out of it so go ahead and guess. “
And I said. “Survivors don’t get buried. “
Ann says. “You took
the most practical answer Guy, I am amazed. Usually you see the other side.”
Now she had me
going and I said. “What would that be? “
“Well the other
answer is who cares? They are just lawyers. “
We both laughed and
I sensed it help ease Ann’s frustration over the whole thing. I asked if they
were going to need a car carrier to bring the van back and Ann said it was useless,
that it might as well end up in a scrap yard out there as well as back here. The
body and engine were so badly mangled and there was the small fire that soon
was put out by the same trucker who hit us . Seeing smoke he grabbed his fire
extinguisher and put out the flames. Wow we were close to biting the big one. Has
me leery of driving and we were having a good time. We had just went over our
checklist of things we forgot. Guess one was a fire extinguisher when idiots
decide to knock you out of state. Oh well we are safe, kinda. Lee is in getting stitches don’t think we will
be climbing soon except into your suv for the trip home.
The police in Indiana
said that we could pick our stuff up at the impound lot after noon tomorrow so
we are going to get a room for maybe two
nights then head back fresh in the morning after we get our stuff if that is OK
with you. It will give lee a chance to recuperate a little. “Ann continued.
I said “OK Ann why don’t you call me later
with the motel information and I will jump on map quest and see where you are at.
I can come now and pick you up if you want me to we can always go back and pick
up your stuff later. “
Ann said, “No Lee
and I need to time to wind down , I will call you later after we are settled
just wanted to let you know what was going . “
“Do you want me to call anyone else like your brothers
or anything?” I asked.
Ann says. “Doubt if that would be a good idea , and they aren't real fond of Lee
and his ideas despite Lee helping me all the time. And really I don’t care a
lot about who they married to either. But they will worry needlessly and it isn't
necessary. I will call them in a day or two when we are back and settled and
everything is OK. Just need your help Guy. “
“No problem Ann
will be right there or at least when you need me to be there. Can I fit
everything in the SUV?”
Ann replied.” I don’t know we ended up taking
a lot of stuff and we had the van loaded down pretty good. We even had a spare
engine. Now it is a smashed box of useless parts.” And it was now that it began
to sink home how lucky Ann and Lee were as she recanted how they had put all
that work in the van and in 1 second or less, everything was wasted. All their
time and effort at restoring the old girl, as lee referred to her, was forever
lost.”
I reassured her
that everything was going to be ok and that they were lucky to have been
injured ever so slightly compared to what it could have been. We talked some more
of the details then we hung up and I waited for her to call again.
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