Athe We were laughing.
Dad had told a joke, everyone was laughing.
The horn sounded on the semi weaving into our lane.
Squeal of brakes.
Screams.
Then silence.
I woke on the side of the road.
Alone.
My arm was broken.
I was a good hundred yards from the crash.
I was lucky not to be hamburger meat.
The others... The driver, my family...
They were dead.
I limped back to the wreck to make sure. Looking through the shattered windshield of my family's red Suburban caused me to have to step away. I spent about ten minutes in the bushes, and I only came away when I was empty; at stomach, at heart, and at mind.
I looked both ways down the highway. Nothing for miles. Little chance of being found soon.
I wrote a note with a pencil and paper I'd stored in the ba