The Accident

This is a post that’s I have waited a long time to write.

Now that some time has passed and I feel that I am finally able write about a big change in my life.

It all starts with a story.

It was the Tuesday before Halloween, I had just got back from the gym and I was in the kitchen preparing my usual post-workout shake. As I was mixing the whey with the milk I heard a distant crash. I thought it was a glass bottle that Simon, my roommate upstairs, may have thrown out his room. Knowing Simon that wouldn’t be something out of the ordinary. It was when what I heard next that told me that it was something totally different.

“Oh my god! Jeff are you ok? Somebody call 911!”

With those words my life took a sudden turn to the unexpected.

I ran outside around to the side of the house, where Simon has a staircase that goes directly into his second story bedroom. I look up and I see Simon in a frantic state. I asked him what happened and he told me that Jeff fell off the staircase.

It was around 11:30 PM and pitch black- I ran back into my room to grab my trusty Mag-Light and ran back outside. I flicked it on and I immediately saw Jeff in the brush next to the stairs. He landed on the concrete walkway leading up to the stairs. A wooden bench next to the stairs broke the fall for his legs.

As Simon ran back into his house to grab his cell phone I walked up to Jeff. I was immediately relieved to hear him breathe- although he struggled to do so and it sound more like snoring than breathing. There was blood coming out of his nose and it looked as if he cut his hand on the way down. It goes to say he wasn’t conscious at all.

Simon ran down while talking with the 911 operator and rambled on and on as panic just took over him. I tried to take control of the situation- telling Simon not to move Jeff and handed him my flashlight. I knew that help was right around the corner and I ran back into the house to get another flash light.

I stood in the middle of the street and waived down the on-coming Calvary of help. fire trucks, ambulances, and police cruisers arrived within minutes of Simon’s call. The one good thing about where I live is that it is close to everything.

I watched from the porch as they worked on him. Police were already interviewing Simon about what happened. It appears that both of them had been drinking and Simon suspected that Jeff stepped out onto the staircase for a quick smoke or piss. An officer walked up to me and took my statement.

Slowly Jeff was taken away and one by one the authorities left the house. Simon was still in a state of shock and anger. Jeff was his best friend and I could see the emotional toll it had on him. He was calling everyone on his phone and couldn’t stop talking.

I drove Simon to the hospital where we found out that Jeff was in critical condition. However since we were not family the information we had access to was limited.

It’s now two weeks since the accident occurred. Jeff is recovering slowly and steadily from a broken neck, back, and ribs- amongst many other injuries. It goes without saying that he’s lucky to be alive after that night.

Today Sarah and I have signed a new lease with a new house nearby. It’s a smaller house but it’s in great shape and Sarah and I look forward to moving past this incident and starting a new chapter of life in Arlington.

There’s a whole lot I’m leaving out of this blog. I feel that it maybe too soon to talk about all the details and there are a lot of feelings associated with those details I’m not ready to write about. The accident started a chain of events that brought a lot of stress and turmoil to my life. That Tuesday was the first week after a long stretch of work and I was looking forward to being able to relax and recenter myself. The accident has kept my life in constant motion but the move this weekend will bring some closure.

Life sometimes brings unexpected events through no fault of your own. While you can criticize and lay blame to these moments, I feel that it is exactly these moments that define who you are as a person. I didn’t ask for these things to happen to myself but I am damn proud about the way I handled it and I walk away from it a better person.

Now it is time to start a new chapter in my life.