It was high time we had to get together. A celebration of long time friendship that defied all rules and tested the most everlasting of its type. We have met at school, not a normal school. It was an adult education center.
Now you might think - adults going to school? Yes. It's still possible. They were classes of English as a Second Language (aka: ESL) government supported to new immigrants to help them cope with their new life where English is not their mother tongue.
This program helped anyone to get fluent in English and at the same time keep you updated on business English and related issues to the workplace, from a very simple greeting, to writing resumes and short stories. Singing songs also helped with pronunciation issues and the opportunity to participate on some co-ops were a possibility of getting a job was high.
I met my husband there, introduced to me by another person that didn't speak same language as me. She's Chinese. With little English she introduced me; to my now, husband.
During break time at school we started to go the cafeteria to have some coffee. There we met another couple. We quickly became great friends.
The group grew to 4 people that went everywhere together.
Every other month end we got together and went out for lunch, of dinner or just for a quick walk at the park to talk about anything. We really enjoyed our time together.
Their birthday was fast approaching and they decided to invite us to join them for the party, to what we replied our assistance. We agreed to meet at their house and from there go to a restaurant. That day for some reason was forecasted to be foggy snd rainy.
No problem at all we thought. So we packed up our birthdays gift snd hooped in the car. Traffic was a bit light, so we looked at the time. We noticed we were a bit early.
Our usual route across the city to get to the lakeshore was not other than a windy road than ran along the highway. The first half of the trip the sunshine was just Starting to show up. The birds again, starting to sing.
Spring was coming back again. The second half oh the trip was just coming to an end. Went down the hill, running along the river a small herd of deer glanced up to check on the cars running along parallel to the creek just next to the highway. The deer were clever to stay behind the chained high raised chained fence.
We just crossed a main road that divided the north from the south of the city.
We just proceed to start the second half of the road when I felt the car ran over a rock that bounced back from the road to the undercarriage of the car, Maybe ran over a pothole.
The car started to spin. Did a 360 while drifting to the side of the road, flew over the sidewalk and went down the hill. A tree stopped us from going down the hill to a river at the bottom of the hill.
I just attempted to cover my face with my hands trying not to hit myself against the rest of the car or against my boyfriend (at that time).
The seatbelts of course, played a big role on our safety. We could've easily get ejected from the car while rolling down the hill. I kinda remember the pull and the seatbelt holding me from loosing my grip.
The car came to a stop at an incline before the river down the road before the train lines. It wasn't a long area the car kept skidding on its side, it just the force on which the car kept on skidding off the road. There were no cars behind us, no cars coming from the other direction.
I came out of the car, climbed up the hill and sat down on the wallboard.
Nobody noticed a car Just skid off the road and went down the hill.
A fire truck; luckily passing by stopped by. They saw the car skid off the road and stopped and came to help us. I just sat at the top of the hill, back on the road. Because I was in shock, I did not say anything. I was frozen scared. They checked us up to see if we were ok.
No bones broken, just some scratches and bumps.
Because of the fear and what just happened I did not feel anything until the end of the day that I went to sleep. Exhausted. I slept like a baby.
I couldn't complain.
I was scared.
I was in shock.
The fear of having my parents yelling at me was higher than the fear I had from the accident.
All of the sudden my boyfriend did not have a car. Brand new car.
Just short of a year old.
The insurance declared the car totaled. The car got replaced with a similar car, different color.
Our friends thought we made up a story for not going. In reality we had a car accident. The car spun 360, skid off rolled over fell off the trail down a small creek. A tree stopped us. We explained it to them. They didn't believe us. I had half of my body covered with glass particles that did not showed up till a couple of days after. They didn't talk to us for quite long time. Up to now they don't believe us.
The final report of the accident showed as a human mistake. Our fault. The car got totalled, not drivable. We couldn't call our friends due to the mayhem and hassle that accident caused us. Our friendship stopped for almost a year, when we bumped into each other at the fair grounds.
They still don't believe we had an accident and couldn't make it to their party.
Of course; in our minds the rain, could've affect a great friendship .
Could've been the end of our lives.
Just driving in the rain to go to a great friend's birthday party.