Tonight, my family and I were leaving a
restaurant parking lot, but the view of the road was obscured by parked
cars. One of the cars was a panel van, illegally parked too close to the
driveway. My dad poked out slowly, and seeing that the coast was clear
(from his perspective), darted out.
It’s a confusing little street, since it is an exit street for the highway. However, it’s still a two way street for a little ways until the road reaches the highway exit at which point, there’s a little turn around for opposite flowing traffic to escape the dead end.
From my perspective, I saw the taxi flying off the highway, but before I managed to turn thoughts into words, to let my dad know that there’s another car coming, our car lurched out into the road. “Whoa!” shouted my dad, but he’s fortunately a good driver and managed to turn out hastily.
See, the trouble was that the cab was driving on the wrong side of the road, mistakenly believing it to be a left lane. He also attempted to (illegally) cut off our (legal) left turn from his wrong lane, still likely believing it to be a left turn lane. So my dad couldn’t see him, obscured by the illegally parked van, zooming down the wrong lane.
Nothing happened beyond that. There was no collision, not a scratch, not anything except shock on our parts, and likely, a confused, indignant cabbie somewhere out there.
But it makes me wonder, if we had been but five seconds slower to leave the restaurant, if everything had been delayed by five seconds, how different might our lives have been? The cab was coming way faster than he should have off the highway. When we popped out, if the cab was five seconds closer, what might have happened? I am loath to imagine that possible future.
But that’s not this future. This future is the one where we chattered about it in the car animatedly, then arrived home safe and sound, until I came to be here now, writing this blog post.
It made me think about how strange life can be, the way timelines can intersect just right to be either the most fortuitous or the most catastrophic, and we have little control over the chaos. It makes me wonder why my life has been so full of the fortuitous, while others’ lives so full of the opposite. It’s at once marvelous and terrifying, though, the difference five seconds can make.
It’s a confusing little street, since it is an exit street for the highway. However, it’s still a two way street for a little ways until the road reaches the highway exit at which point, there’s a little turn around for opposite flowing traffic to escape the dead end.
From my perspective, I saw the taxi flying off the highway, but before I managed to turn thoughts into words, to let my dad know that there’s another car coming, our car lurched out into the road. “Whoa!” shouted my dad, but he’s fortunately a good driver and managed to turn out hastily.
See, the trouble was that the cab was driving on the wrong side of the road, mistakenly believing it to be a left lane. He also attempted to (illegally) cut off our (legal) left turn from his wrong lane, still likely believing it to be a left turn lane. So my dad couldn’t see him, obscured by the illegally parked van, zooming down the wrong lane.
Nothing happened beyond that. There was no collision, not a scratch, not anything except shock on our parts, and likely, a confused, indignant cabbie somewhere out there.
But it makes me wonder, if we had been but five seconds slower to leave the restaurant, if everything had been delayed by five seconds, how different might our lives have been? The cab was coming way faster than he should have off the highway. When we popped out, if the cab was five seconds closer, what might have happened? I am loath to imagine that possible future.
But that’s not this future. This future is the one where we chattered about it in the car animatedly, then arrived home safe and sound, until I came to be here now, writing this blog post.
It made me think about how strange life can be, the way timelines can intersect just right to be either the most fortuitous or the most catastrophic, and we have little control over the chaos. It makes me wonder why my life has been so full of the fortuitous, while others’ lives so full of the opposite. It’s at once marvelous and terrifying, though, the difference five seconds can make.
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