So, we don’t have a car anymore. We are fortunate to have great friends and family who freely loan vehicles without a second thought. Turns out that it wasn’t my fault, since I was totally supposed to be turning left with a green arrow. Of course, when you drive a Mack truck, people are just expected to get out of your way, I guess.

It was a rather surreal experience. I didn’t see the truck until it was about to hit and I thought, “Oh shit!” as I tried to accelerate away from the impact. But Mr. Y is no spring chicken and I could not outrun the speeding truck. It happened both rapidly and in slow motion. There was a pop and then smoke and deflated airbags in front of me. All I could hear was the horn blaring, but it didn’t stop when I turned off the car and pulled out the key. Then a guy came over and asked if I was ok. I said my chest was tight and he said it would be best to get out. I walked over the broken glass of what used to be my rear windshield to the parking lot of Walgreens on the corner. I was catching my breath and everybody was asking if I was alright and touching my chest. I noticed my pinky knuckle was bleeding from being scraped. They were saying I had the green arrow and I was saying I needed to call my wife. People wanted to give me their names and numbers, so I told them to write everything down on my homemade Arabic flashcards I had in my backpack. The fire department arrived. They put a bandaid on my finger and checked my vitals. I told them I was ok and that I didn’t need to go to the hospital (to incur unnecessary medical bills that I wouldn’t be able to pay). They made me walk around and I cracked some jokes so they knew I was fine. I met the driver of the Mack truck, who asked how I hadn’t seen him coming. I didn’t have an answer for him. He said he had never been in an accident and I said I hadn’t either. The cop gave us each forms to fill out for exchanging our info. I called my boss to come get me, since he was the closest to my location and I was already really late for work. He got there 5 minutes later and we waited with the cop for the tow truck to arrive. The cop lady said she thought it was odd that the truck driver had said he slammed on his brakes to avoid hitting me, but there were no skid marks in the intersection.

Anyway, I don’t think I’ve ever yearned for a weekend as much as this week. My bones need to sleep.