A Near Death Experience

Last winter, on a chilly night, I was walking with EXBF. We were in a rush, trying to make it to a movie, I think "Underworld 2." I was wearing an oversized sweatshirt and jeans, and had my arms pulled inside to hug myself against the cold; the sleeves of my sweatshirt were swinging freely at my side. We stopped at an intersection with a "Don't Walk" sign, but then seeing that there was nothing coming except for a bus that still looked very far away, we decided to make a run for it. Correction: I decided to make a run for it, and EXBF started a second behind me.

Halfway across the intersection, I tripped on the end of my bootcut jeans and, not being able to stop my fall with my hands which were pulled inside my sweatshirt, broke my fall with my left knee, elbow, and shoulder, and then fell flat on my stomach in the middle of the road. By the time I landed, EXBF was across the street, and I was alone in the middle of the road. My hands were trapped underneath my body so I couldn't move. I looked in a panic to my right and saw the front of the bus speeding towards me. I thought I had reached the end, and all I could think of was how angry my parents were going to be that I had been so stupid. It seemed like such a ridiculous waste that I was going to die by being squashed by a bus.

Panicked, I started throwing my body toward the far side of the street, basically doing a really pathetic version of the worm. Everything slowed down, seconds expanded, and it seemed like I was all alone for several minutes trying desperately to shimmy to the other side of the street while everyone else looked on and the bus came closer and closer.

In reality, it was only a matter of seconds before EXBF ran back to me, and stood over my body with his hand held up against the bus. There was a loud sound, maybe the screeching of brakes, and then the bus came to a stop a mere 10 feet away from my squirming body. EXBF pulled me to my feet, and I mutely slipped my arms back into the sleeves of the sweatshirt. I was shaking and breathing heavily, and I couldn't speak.

We crossed the street and I had to sit down on a curb. I started to cry. I wasn't hurt, at least not badly. I had skinned my knee and an elbow, and had big bruises on the left side of my body, but I was really upset for a few moments. We decided to forego the movie and head home, picking up some mint chocolate chip ice cream on the way.

It was only several hours later, while wrapped up in blankets on the couch with an ice pack on my knee, talking to Bacchus on the phone, that I was able to laugh at what had happened. I was telling him the story, still feeling shaken up, and when I got to the part about doing the worm across the street - the really terrifying, serious part of the story - he couldn't stop himself from bursting out laughing. Hearing him laugh, it pushed me over the edge, and I started laughing too. His laugh is infectious like that.

The moral: On these winter days of bitter cold, keep your arms in your sleeves, where they belong.