I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends

What should've been a great week of seeing friends, drinking, football, and turkey quickly turned stone cold sober Saturday afternoon.

A friend of mine recieved a call from another friend. She told him she'd been in a car accident earlier Saturday morning. This was her second in two weeks. She took a turn too wide and crashed into a phone pole (she was the only person in the single car crash). The airbags never deployed and her face was smashed into the steering wheel.

After orginally planning on going out for dinner, plans were quickly changed. We made a few quick phone calls to other friends, who joined in the coconut telegraph. Some phone calls were made later than others. Realistically, we've never had to go through this, so there was no rhyme or reason as to who was called first or last. I happened to find out, only because I was there when my buddy got the call from her.

After going home and hoping in the shower, between phone calls, I darted out the door and into the Crown Vic (a V8 engine in cop car comes in handy when one is in a hurry). I picked up another buddy on my way to the hospital.

I didn't, and neither did he, expect to know what we'd be looking at. The first buddy was already there, with the eggs that she wanted. Hey, who likes hospital food?

Well, there sat one of best friends and two other friends. She was in good shape, considering her face had been smashed against a steering wheel (air bags didn't deploy). Her right eye was swolen shut, her left was black and blue, her hair had blood in it, she still smelled like smoke.....we still love her.

After sitting around for a few minutes, gaging how she was, it was clear she was back to herself. Of course we spared no jokes at her expense, after all, that's what friends are for.

Her guy friend came by, but he'd been there for quite some time already. A few more trickled in and we enojyed the calmness from chaos that had happened only hours before.

The phone continued to ring as more people called to check in on her. It seemed that she would be OK.

But, would we be? We came very close to losing one of our best friends in a moment where none of us were around. Will this be one of those things that the luster wears off after awhile and things go back to normal? If it does, then how long does it take? If it doesn't, what changes?

I guess only time will tell.