Catastrophe

By Ja'Kima Price

I closed my eyes and every sound that I heard before—cars rushing by, people ordering McDonald's through the drive-thru, screeching tires—ceased to exist. My whole body jerked forward, then shot back because of the resistance of my seatbelt. I sat there, unable to open my eyes, unable to move, unable to think.
Then I heard a faint sound. I couldn't make it out at first, but when I opened my eyes, I noticed that it was my mom yelling at me to get out of the car.
Why do I need to get out of the car? I thought to myself.
And then I saw it. Our windshield was cracked, not broken. The hood of the car—or what was left of it—was all scrunched up, and there was smoke everywhere. I closed my eyes again as the smoke found its way into my thoughts.

~~

I woke up to the sound of purring as my cat, PJ, licked my face. It's the usual way he would wake me up. I looked at my phone. It was Friday, July 1, 2011.
It's a new month. Now only a month and twenty-six days until my birthday, I thought.
It was 8 A.M. by the I had gotten up, taken a shower, and eaten breakfast. I went into the kitchen, where my mom was on the phone with my oldest aunt, Samantha.
“We are going to pick Aunt Samantha up from work and take her house hunting,” my mom told me once she got off the phone.
I was actually excited about getting out of the house today, besides the fact that it was almost 100 degrees out. I love visiting my aunt because whenever we get her from her job, she always ends up bringing me to Slim-Jims. We left from our house at eleven, since my aunt got out at twelve. When we arrived at Henry Ford Mailing System, she came straight downstairs.
The first house we looked at was actually right down the street from where my grandmother, Sharon, lived. My mom's car started overheating because of the weather, so we decided to pull into my grandmother's driveway and let the car cool. After an hour, the car was cooled and we drove down the street.
We checked out the first house. It was a little too small, but it was cute and cozy. The second house was all the way on the other side of Detroit. It was way bigger than the first one, but we never saw the insides of it. After that, we decided to go home. We were debating going to Aunt Samantha's house just for a few minutes, but it was still scorching hot outside, so we decided otherwise.
I listened to all the sounds around us. I recognized all the familiar sites I always see: the Coney Island, the 7-Eleven, CVS, the donut shop, a gas station, and McDonald's. McDonald's was the last thing I saw before I closed my eyes.

~~

I opened my eyes and got out of the car. Pain hit me like ten million bricks. I had to find out what was happening. I had to make some sort of sense out of this while my mom pulled me away from the middle of the street to the sidewalk. When I stopped, I turned around from where we just came from and I noticed our car. It didn't even look like a car anymore; it looked like scrap metal pushed together.
Then reality hit me. We had just had a car accident.
For the first time, I noticed the car we hit: a white pick-up truck. I looked at it closer and became furious that no damage was made to it, except for a dent in its side. I wanted to scream, because we paid the price for what they caused.
As I opened my mouth, no sound came out. I was already in pain. I looked down to see where the pain was coming from, which was a long scar across my chest where the seatbelt had been. It was unpleasant to look at, so I quickly looked away.
I called my aunt to tell her what happened. She was on her way as soon as I hung up. A police car and two ambulances arrived. I'm not sure what was going on after I got off the phone. Everything seemed to fade away: the sound of the sirens, my mom's constant apologies ….

~~

Everything came back to me when I was in the hospital with my two aunts, Samantha and Myneshia. Some of the family members came to the hospital: Aunt Samantha, Aunt Myneshia, Aunt Johnita, Aunt Tiney, Aunt Joann. My grandmother, Betty, came with my three cousins, Mekio, Julia, and Neveah.
Aunt Tiny, Aunt Joann,Grandma Betty, Mekio and Neveah all went home. Aunt Johnita drove all of us to my grandma Sharon's house. My step-dad, Bruce, also arrived there to comfort us.
We stayed until the sun started to set. We couldn't get into the house because the keys were left in our car, so we spent the night at Samantha's house. My mom and I rode in Bruce's car, while Samantha rode in Johnita's.
The day ended with all three of us—my mom, Samantha, and me—in the front room sleeping on the couches. My mom was the only one sleeping; Samantha and I were up watching Alice in Wonderland. I tried to go to sleep, but all of the flashbacks played a constant movie in my head every time I closed my eyes. I couldn't believe what had happened to me today. Most people would just blow it off by the end of the day, but I couldn't. We didn't have a car anymore, and my mom didn't have a job anymore.
But I didn't want to think about the negative things anymore. I pushed them aside and thought of all the positive things, like the fact that I was alive. The police officer said that I was lucky that I had lived. I was sitting in the back passenger side of the car. If only I was sitting in the front ….
To this day, I have dreams about that day. I can never forget about that day. But I did learn one thing from that day: everything happens for a reason, good or bad. You may find out why the same day, the next day, a month, or even a year later. But God doesn't give you a situation without a solution. So, until that day comes, I'll just keep searching and praying.