86. Trapped

It’s not easy getting out of a wrecked SUV! I unlocked my seat belt and began to squirm around on the ceiling of the vehicle. The car was tilted at a steep angle. Assuming I was on a hill, I naturally went to the high side of the car and tried the door. I pulled the handle up, then down. The door opened about a foot, but would budge no farther. Scooting around with my butt uphill I tried the lower door and that wouldn’t even unlatch. I took a breath and tried to think. Was I missing something? Was there a button I should push? But I couldn’t think of anything that would keep the downhill door from opening except damage to the vehicle

The engine died with a short cough.  Not until then did I think of the possibility of the car catching fire from a hot engine.  But If I was stuck here for hours, I’d need the heat to protect me from hypothermia.  

I scooted back around to face the uphill door again and the car suddenly began to slide down the hill. It seemed to pick up speed and I stretched out until my feet found something solid. In a moment the ride was over. The SUV crashed into something with a wrenching thud and my feet smashed through the window into water. One headlight shut off. As I began to pray, “Please let the other one stay on,” the second light went out, as if I hadn’t put in my request fast enough.

I was getting rattled. I took deep breath, then another. Cold quickly seeped into the SUV.  I didn’t know how much water was beneath me. Either I was in a ditch containing five or six inches of water or I was teetering on the edge of a major stream or river! My God! I thought, I hope I’m not about to plunge into the Hudson River! They’ll find my body at the 59th Street Pier in Manhattan!

I pushed on the uphill door again and it opened another inch. Putting my arms up and out through the opening, I tried to pull myself out. My head and face were now in the snow as I tried to force the door farther open while pushing myself up and out at the same time. After a few minutes, I knew I would not fit through the opening. Dejectedly, I relaxed and slid my arms back into the car. I flipped myself around again and got into position to kick at the window. That would hopefully break it or push the door more open. But when I thrust my legs my body slipped on the ceiling, diluting each kick. In desperation, I turned around again and this time and began to head butt the window. Once, twice … damn that hurt! … three times and all I had to show for my effort was blood streaming down in my eyes and the beginning of a terrible headache.

I had to somehow get out of the SUV or I’d freeze. By the time I was discovered after the storm, I’d be dead of exposure. I had to come up with a solution. I couldn’t afford to panic, as much as my mind screamed at me to DO SOMETHING … NOW! … like an hysterical child running in a circle trying to get someone to help him.  I rolled over on my back and wrapped my arms around myself and tried to think and pray at the same time. My wet feet felt like they were freezing. I tried to hold back tears of despair. So much for my thoughts of death as an alternative to the frightening journey into old age. Now I desperately wanted to live. That’s when I saw the colors.

I thought I’d lost all the power in the vehicle, but evidently only the headlights had died. Out of the lower corner of my eye I saw a rose-colored light. I was reminded of a sunset long ago, golden clouds on a pink and blue sky. I peered down and saw the door to the glove compartment had popped open and a small light inside weakly lit the red interior. I don’t know why I thought I saw pink and gold and blue and green. Wiping the blood from my eyes, my scalp hurting as though someone had broken a chair over my head, I cramped up into a fetal position and again maneuvered myself to point downhill with my face near the compartment, now above me in the upside down SUV. Jammed inside and sticking out of a pile of maps and assorted junk was a screwdriver. I suddenly remembered a frigid, beery night long ago in college when I’d locked myself out of my car. Of course! Tempered Glass! I could bang my head on that window till Kingdom Come and never get through it. My feet had easily shattered the lower window earlier, no doubt because the glass surface had been well scratched by a rock or tree as we landed at the bottom of the ditch. 

All I needed was to scratch the upper window’s surface with a screwdriver, like I had done long ago in the snow outside Buckland’s Beer Joint. The scratches would relieve the tempering and allow the glass to break easily. Five minutes later I was crawling over what was left of the side window into the snow and up the hill.

I heard a  truck pass by above me. I climbed even faster, anxious to get up to the road. But when I got there it was empty of any cars. I slumped to my knees and waited. And waited.

The snow fell more heavily now. When I finally saw the lights of a vehicle approaching, it was almost upon me. Jumping up I made as much commotion as I could from the side of the road. I did not want to run in front of a car and cause its driver to slam on his brakes and leave us both stranded here. The car slowed down and stopped just beyond where I stood waving my arms.

I heard the passenger-side power window whine down and I ran to it. Bending over to peer in, I tried to find my voice.

“I - I - crash - ditch - cold- freezing-“ I said. The young woman behind the steering wheel looked at me with a shocked expression across her face.

“You’re all bloody!” she cried and pressed her foot to the accelerator. I heard the engine rev up and I jumped back to save my toes. Then I reached out to grab some part of the moving vehicle to hang on to. I didn’t care … dragged along in the snow was better than being left there by the side of the road. But I soon fell away and got to my feet.

“What the F*CK!!!” I shouted. “YOU F*CKING XXXX” (use your imagination), I shouted after the woman.

“What the F*CK!!!” I shouted again, this time at the sky, but He knew who I was yelling at. I could not believe someone would leave me by the side of the road to save her upholstery. Damn! I would have wrapped my coat around my head if that’s what she wanted. Or rode in the trunk!

The road miraculously lit up ahead and I saw my long shadow stretch out in front of me. A truck had come up from behind to stop just short of hitting me as I stood cursing in the middle of the road. I quickly wiped my face on my sleeve as best I could and ran to the driver’s window.

“I’ve been bloodied up in an accident and my car’s off the road.” I shouted.

“Get in!” he called down.


I've loved this album since I bought in 1962.  It doesn't play any more.  I need to get the CD.