I looked at the sky again, now a nightmarish black color no longer littered with glistening stars, but with an evil orange grinning crescent. But, that didn't make sense. It was 7:00 am. Sunday morning October 28/ 2007. The sun should have been rising. But it didn't. It was as if the sky was promising that I wouldn't see it. And that was the truth; I would never see it that day.
I remember my family and I were at the intersection of Macland Rd. and Lost Mt. road headed to church for a trip to a homeless shelter somewhere in Atlanta. My brother and I were wearing all kakis and my sister was dressed up casually. Mom was going to drop us off at the church and go back home because service didn't actually start until ten. None of us made it.
The traffic light that stood in front of us finally gave us the "GO" signal and, ,being that there weren't any visible cars, we treaded underneath the light. Five seconds had passed and we were just about to peak out of the intersection when I noticed headlights to my right. I looked out of my small window to see a truck (all I know is that it was a truck) speeding right towards us with police cars behind it not even flaring their siren.
"Oh God!! Jesus!!" I screamed as loud as I could. Mom looked at what I was looking at and shrieked while slamming her foot on the gas peddle... Too late. It was all too late.
I remember sitting and watching. Listening and breathing in all that was happening. I was sitting in the back seat. I saw everything. I heard the metal and glass crunching. I saw the bloody shards of plastic and gravel floating and wondering around the air. I heard all the screams of my brother, sister, and mom jumble together creating a chaotic mess of sound. And when it was all set and done... The last thing I saw was my sister fly through the window into a sea of oncoming traffic.
"We've got a casualty!!! We have a casualty!!" I heard a cop who was running past my window say. All of the police were out of their cars running around trying to stop traffic, catch the runaway hitter, and call the ambulance all at once. No one came to me. My brother and mother bolted out of the car as fast as they could to help my sister. No one came to me.
Some time had passed when I realized this: they thought I was dead. Everyone thought that I died. Why? Why would I be dead? I looked around the car with my left eye because my right eye wouldn't open. There was torn paper and glass strewn around on the floor and the seat that my sister was sitting in was entirely on its side with the seatbelt still buckled to it. The windshield upfront had caved in a little and all of the side windows were shattered.
I looked to my left. The binder that was sitting next to me was open with droplets of blood soaking into the sheets. I was going to look to my right when something on my pants caught my attention: there was a spot of blood as big as a silver dollar sitting on it and more red liquid was being added to it. My right hand hadn't even touched my face when I felt the warmth of my blood literally cover it.
That's when I screamed. I didn't know how bad it was but if I wasn't dead then, I would be if I sat any longer. A nearby cop heard me and ran to where I was.
"Oh my God!!" he yelled. "There's a kid back here with his head gushing blood out! Call a lifeline! He's going into shock!" Instinctively, he grabbed a couple of gauze pads out of his miniature firstaid kit and firmly pressed them to my head. It's going to be okay, kid. Everything's going to be fine. In a couple minutes, you will hear a loud noise. That's only meaning that we're trying to get you out, ok?" I nodded. And everything turned dark.
Lastly, I remember the next day. I finally had the courage to look at myself in the mirror. To see what had happened. So I stumbled into the bathroom and pressed myself against the sink with my eyes shut tight. One... Two... Three... Open. I looked like the Phantom of the Opera without his mask. You could draw a line of symmetry down my face. The left side looked normal while the right was horrifying. Scars lined my cheeks and bruises filled the places where the scars weren't. I couldn't open my right eye for five days and in a time span of 12 months, I went through ten surgical operations and medicine to get to what I look like today
That is what I remember.
