Rollercoaster Ride

It has been such a looong day already, and it all started with a five o'clock AM (!) phone call. My 16 year old brother called me at that early hour, and of course, because he has a tendency to call at inappropriate times, I ignored the call. Then he called my fiance's phone and I thought something must be wrong. So, I called him back and aggravated, I asked, "What do you want?!"





He asked me, "Can (Big T's) truck pull my truck?"





I replied, as if nothing was out of the ordinary, "No, why?"





Then he proceeded to tell me, "My truck is in a field."





Of course, I said, "Why is your truck in a field?"





He replied, "I rolled my truck, but I'm OK."





From there, I just told him there was no way our truck could pull his because ours is too old.





We got off the phone, and I laid there with a pit in my stomach for a few minutes until my fiance rolled over and nonchalantly asked me how my brother's truck ended up in a field. I told him that my brother said he hit the rocks on the side of the road, over corrected, hit the other ditch, and then rolled. All he remembered was flying and landing.





I thought I would be able to go back to sleep until my senses came back, and I realized, I really knew nothing about this situation. My 16 year old brother was just in a car accident! He flipped his truck! How in the world is he OK?! So, I text him asking how he lost focus and managed to flip his truck, when it happened and told him he had to report the accident or he would get charged with leaving the scene of an accident.





He said he was unable to sleep all night and felt like he just needed to get out for a bit. He later told me that once he got in the car and started driving, he just felt so free. [By the way, I should probably tell you that my brother, while not legally emancipated, lives the emancipated lifestyle.] He was driving along at 60 miles an hour when he saw a 30 mile an hour sign coming up. He says he took his foot of the gas, and for whatever reason (there is still something missing here, in my opinion) he got "sucked into the ditch" on the left side of the road, over corrected, got "sucked into the ditch" on the right side, and flipped the car. The policeman said it flipped vertically, head first, twice. I am just in shock, still.





My brother was so very blessed! He had his drivers side window open with his arm hanging out of it... So many things are running through my mind of what could have happened, and it makes me sick to my stomach to think that a police man or the hospital could have been contacting me at 5am to tell me my brother had been killed in a car accident.





My brother is 16 years old. He lives with a buddy. He works and goes to school. He is still a child, but he believes otherwise. He seems to refuse to deal outwardly with the fact that our mom is dead, and for this reason, he doesn't understand that it is totally and completely unacceptable to leave at 4am (past curfew, which was part of his $150 fine) and tell no one where you were. If he had broken his neck in the accident, no one would have known where to begin looking for him. He could have died before anyone even found him because he was on a rural road!





He had x-rays done, though, as well as a CT scan, and all came back normal. He has a welt where his seat belt (thank GOD (!) he was smart enough to put that on) pushed on his neck. He has a big burn on his leg from where it hit the steering wheel. He has a bruise on his cheek where he most likely hit the steering wheel. Most of all, he is having terrible neck pain, which they prescribed 600 mg of Ibuprofen for. I can't imagine how he's going to feel tomorrow.





It was quite an experience on my part as well because my brother's legal guardian, his dad, was not there. His dad picked him up from the accident and told him to find someone to tow the truck out of the field! I was the one who made sure he got checked out and reported it. I was the one that signed the consent forms. I was the one that waited with him while he was strapped down to a board in case of neck injury. I'm the one that had to re-visit the very same emergency room my mother died in exactly 1 year and 9 months ago today. I'm also the one that had to drive to the town his dad lives in to tell his father to come to the hospital, since he wouldn't answer the door for the state cop.





I am just so thankful. I keep thanking God and praising God that nothing happened. It could have been so terrible, so traumatizing, but God has a plan for my brother, whether my brother wants to believe it or not. I don't believe in luck or really even coincidence. I believe in God and His plan. It strike me as odd, though, when my brother was going to x-rays and had me hold his necklace. I noticed some inscription on the back of the pendant that I think is worth noting.

I know it is hard to see. I took the picture while sitting in the emergency room on my cell phone. It is an old wheat penny and a tribal pendant that says "Protection" on the back. When he got back to the room, I pointed that out to him. I told him, "I don't believe in symbols or luck. I believe in God, but I thought this was ironic."

In response, he said, "To each his own," and he put his hands behind his head, closed his eyes, and relaxed. It seems he's still got a long way to go before he is willing to admit that God is at work in his life. The fact that he is still alive means he has another chance.