It's been 19 years, I think it's time to write about it -part1
I remember the night before, packing up my fanny pack with cassette tapes, a Walkman, and candy. Being in 5th grade and being eligible to play on the volleyball team at your tiny, little, private, Christian school makes a 10yr old feel pretty grown up. You get to ride the school bus with the rest of your team and the flag football players, what could be better? Little did I know, that next day would turn my world upside down and change my life forever. Forever. Our little, no good, volleyball team lost that game. We mostly didn't care because frankly, we still felt cool. We got to leave school early, ride the bus into Austin, meet new kids, and hang out on a school night. We were def more cool than the kids who's parents drove them to the game. So we thought. We were so cool that we were playing M*A*S*H and singing "99 bottles of beer on the wall. Remember M*A*S*H?? It was a very legit game that predicted your entire future. Mansion vs. shack; how many kids you'll have; who your lucky groom will be and whether or not you'll drive a fancy car. Man, I loved that game. Our game playing and singing all came to a screatching hault when we were being tossed from one side of the bus to the other. What was happening? Things got very dusty, very loud, and I couldn't see what was happening. I could hear voices but no one was speaking clearly. Pretty quickly I felt less tosseled and a lot more "hung up", if you will. There was an extreme burning sensation. I wouldn't describe it as hot. It was def burning. As loudly and as clearly as I could, I yelled, "STOP". The burning continued for some time. (at this point I have no idea on the time frame, like anything horrible, 7 seconds feels like 7 days) At this point, I'm a bit blank. I'm sure with the shock of everything, I blacked out for a few seconds. The next moment I remember feeling really, really stuck. I wasn't in a lot of pain, mostly confused and....well, there really isn't a word for how I felt. I was a ten year old girl who just experienced a life changing moment, somehow I knew I had, but at the same time, I didn't have a damn clue. A school bus, the place you least expect to have something happen, just wrecked out. Literally. It just tossed you from side to side, it sent your little, ten year old body, out the window, drug you down the interstate and then proceded to land on top of you. How could this happen? How could this NOT be a dream? How could I be laying on the road? I'm only in 5th grade, I'm not allowed to be laying in the road. I'm so small. All the noises stopped. The dust was slowly settling. I was still stuck. So damn stuck. That's all I could think about. What was making me so stuck? I could move my legs and my head but then again, I couldn't move at all. I felt like the right side of my body was in a hole, below me. Had I fallen into a crack in the road? Could there be a crack big enough to fall into? I hope someone is calling 911. OhMyGosh, I'm gonna be on the show, Rescue 911. How long will that take?? I have dirt in my mouth. Who's arm is that laying behind me? There sure is a lot of blood. My mom hates blood. I wonder what everyone else is doing. These were all thoughts that went through my head. Literally. In that exact order. I remember like it was yesterday. There were voices saying my name and telling me to get up. Why were they all sounding so panicked? Why were they freaking out? What could they see that I couldn't? Why was it clear to me that I was stuck like glue but they were pulling on me? I didn't have the answer to anything. Nothing made sense. I was in severe pain when the bus was moving but now I feel nothing. When I pick my head up, I see a lot of blood and a random arm in the distance. Surely that means someone else is hurt because my arm is stuck below me in the huge ass, non-existent crack. There was no use trying to figure it out. I would just lye still and rest my eyes for a while.... ~stay tuned for part 2~