headlights and hurricanes
Monday, Aug. 16, 2004 @ 2:42 p.m.

pam went to chicago this weekend and left us her car. the hurricane weather postponed her flight from thursday morning until friday afternoon, so ryan drove her back and forth a couple of times.

on saturday i worked a wedding with curry goat and cow-testicle soup on the menu. i spilled champagne all over myself in an attempt to keep it from falling onto a rampaging child. ryan picked me up to take pam's car to my parents house which is closer to the airport for her arrival on sunday.

we got out of acton onto the country roads and saw smoke on a hill ahead. there was a truck on fire. across the road another car with its front end crushed into the backseat, and in between and for hundreds of metres in either direction, debris and glass. headlights everywhere. two other drivers had arrived since the collision. one of them called for ryan to help him move the driver of the truck to a safer place, because the truck was leaking gas. he took the man and lay him behind one of the other vehicles. the truck started exploding. black smoke. everything was blurry. i sat on the ground beside the driver, ryan went to get his cell phone and everyone else just kind of watched the fire. a couple of people went to investigate the other car, but the man inside couldn't be removed. he was dead. the truck driver, whose name was earl, was diabetic and hadn't taken his insulin since the morning, he didn't know how he'd got out of the car and he was driving back to orangeville from racing at flamboro downs. his race car was in a trailer attached to his truck. everything was burning. the police arrived. they wouldn't let earl call his wife and son. the volunteer firefighters arrived. most of them were drunk. the police had to take a statement because i was the only one talking to earl. they asked me if earl had been drinking and i didn't know. i smelled like alcohol from the wedding. waiting for me to take my statement, ryan saw them remove the man from the compacted car. he doesn't want to talk about it.

pam came home yesterday and left this morning. her flight home was undisturbed by hurricane charley. miami, where ryan's mother and stepsiblings live, was not. they live way inland, but not everyone's lucky like that.

there has been too much death these past two days. too many headlights and hurricanes. too much commotion and collision. i want to sleep the next two days through and wake up on the other side.