Unexpected Accidents
One cold winter day when I was 9 years old I was in a bus accident. People always give me a slightly confused/slightly amused laugh when I tell them that. It's not that bus accidents are unheard of (or naturally funny), but I think perhaps since I grew up in such a small, safe little town, something like a bus accident is simply unexpected. Or maybe they laugh because we crashed into a garbage truck.
We were on our second to last stop, picking up Sarah P., on that cloudy morning. There must have been a sleet or ice storm earlier in the day because the roads were a lot slicker than usual, even for Wisconsin. We started to drive to our last stop, picking up a bit of speed, when a garbage truck ahead of us suddenly hit the brakes, and despite Lee's best efforts to stop, we slid into the back of the truck.
It's kind of a blur, what happened in that moment, which is probably due to the fact that I likely had a minor concussion. I remember after the initial impact throwing us forward I hit the seat window with the right side of my head and it made a loud noise. And, yes, it hurt quite a bit. I actually cracked the window with my head! Then I became aware of the kids around me - some of the younger ones were crying, a few were trying to get people ready to use the emergency exit in the back, but most of us were just confused and slightly stunned. I noticed that the door flew off into a ditch, and for some reason I thought that was incredibly cool. Instead of checking if the people around me were okay, I instead found it more important to share this exciting observation with them. I had strange priorities as a kid.
We shuffled off the bus and went to a house in the neighborhood to wait while things got sorted out. Ambulances came and a few kids were taken to the hospital, as well as our driver. I should have gone too, seeing as I had a terrible headache from cracking the window, but I decided to keep that information to myself since I hated doctors (plus I didn't want to get in trouble for cracking the window).
We waited for far too long (in my impatient, 9 year old opinion) for the parents to arrive. All I remember from that time was being bored, the people who let us stay in their house being kind of cranky and smelly, and their afghan blanket. I don't know why, but that blanket just stuck out to me.
Most of the kids got to go home that day because they were traumatized, but not me. Noooo, I had to go to school. But I had a headache! I was traumatized, too! Everyone else got to go home! None of my reasons had any effect on my mother. She really didn't seem all that concerned that we had been in an accident and was more so irritated that she had to come pick me up and take me to school. Looking back, I probably should not have led with, "The door flew off into the ditch! It was so cool!" What can I say? I handle shock and trauma differently than most.
In the end, no one was badly injured, including our driver. I think there were a couple broken bones, some cuts and bruising, and of course my unofficial minor concussion, but thankfully there was nothing worse. It was a really strange accident that left me feeling a bit disoriented.
There have been a lot of accidents in my life. Some of them happy, some of them tragic, but most of them have been like this one was: disorienting, confusing...unexpected. These "it seems like a big deal when it happens but it's actually not that bad" situations pop up over and over again in my life. It's hard to remember that oftentimes these unexpected accidents won't turn my world upside down, at least not for long. They just appear abruptly and threaten the usual. They may cause bad headaches and disrupt your plans, but generally it's just a momentary inconvenience; a story that you'll tell down the road to get a small laugh.
