Contents:

Chapter 1:  Learning to Drive

Chapter 2:  Cruising With Danger

Chapter 3:  The Boulevard

Chapter 4:  Sunset Boulevard

Chapter 5:  On The Beach

Chapter 6:  Dead Man's Curve

Chapter 1-Learning To Drive

Driver’s Ed during summer school was as boring as watching old people fuck.

I could think of at least a thousand other things I wanted to be doing, but I wanted my license as soon as I turned sixteen, so I endured the hot, sweaty, trailer where the classes were held. I was fifteen years old, and had only to finish the classes and wait until next summer and I would have my license instead of that damned learner’s permit.

That next school year was great and went by very quickly. And of course, there was Danger. I had known him since elementary school. And was just like me in so many ways. We shared a lot of common likes and dislikes, and the most amazing thing was he was gay too. I never thought I would find someone else gay in my school.  Kids just didn’t come out back then, so if they were gay, it was usually kept a secret.

But he was very open about being gay. I was shocked, he just sat there and talked with me for a few minutes and just blurted it out. It scared me too, because I hadn’t told anyone I was gay, I hadn’t even admitted it to myself. He said it so easily, like it was just talking about the weather, I couldn’t help but tell him that I was gay too.

There was another reason I told him I was gay. I had the biggest crush on him.

He was tall, and slender, had blonde hair and the bluest eyes. I saw him and immediately was attracted to him. He had sex appeal that made all the girls wet between the thighs. And on more than one occasion I heard the girls in our class say what a “fox” he was. He also had a body that was perfect, in every way. I soon began flirting with Danger. His nickname was Danger, and that was very apt too, as he did like to take things to the extreme.

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Chapter 2-Cruising With Danger

Soon enough, school ended, and it was the summer of 1977, and I had just turned sixteen and received my Driver’s License. I passed the tests with perfect scores, both written and driving.

I wanted to go out cruising and have some fun, just Danger and I, but the only car readily available to me was my grandfather’s ’65 Olds Delta 88. A big-ass boat of a car that was definitely not what I wanted to be seen cruising in. It did go fast though, and I did love speed, and so did Danger.

However, my uncle had a really nice brand new Lincoln Continental Mark V, and it roared down the highway and had just the style I didn’t mind being seen in. I called my uncle and told him how I passed my tests and he offered to lend it to me for the weekend. I was elated, and I was grinning from ear to ear when he handed me the keys.

Driving over to Danger’s house was next on the agenda. I couldn’t wait for him to see me pull up in that great big beautiful “Connie” and then go out cruising with Danger by my side. I arrived at his house and honked, I saw him and his mom look out the window and Danger came running out the front door, his mom right behind him.

Danger was from a broken home, just like I was, except he actually lived with his mom, unlike me, who lived with my grandparents. Danger and his mom were really close too, and she always gave him moral support for everything he did, or tried to do. I was kind of jealous of the relationship they had because I wanted that kind of relationship with my mom, but it never happened. My mom was too much in her own world and didn’t have much time for me.

I smiled and waved at Danger’s mom, Sherry, she smiled and waved back, and I motioned Danger over to the passenger side of the Connie. Danger opened the Connie’s long passenger side door and climbed in. Right away he gave me a big kiss and a hug and asked where I got the car. I told him my uncle lent it to me and that we had full use of it for the entire weekend.

He let out a loud whoop and we drove away as I told him that my plans were to drive to Hollywood Boulevard and then down Sunset to the beach after we picked up the two girls we called our girlfriends.

We made a striking couple, and if we were straight, we would have had all the pussy we wanted, especially with this car. And we didn’t mind the attention from the girls either, any attention, no matter who is giving it is good for the ego. And being teenagers, we were mostly ego, and hormones.

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Chapter 3-The Boulevard

We stopped at each of the girl’s houses and picked them up, told them they had to sit in the back seat, and then we were on our way to Hollywood. Luckily, they lived only a couple of blocks away from each other and only a couple of blocks from Danger and me too.

While I drove, I held Danger’s hand and every once in a while would reach over and rub his leg or his crotch, and he did the same to me. By the time we got to Hollywood Boulevard, a thirty-minute drive from our hometown, I was so horny (so was Danger) and had such a hard-on we almost told the girls to get lost so Danger and I could fool around in the back seat. Only problem was there wasn’t any place on or off the street that was dark enough for privacy (it didn’t matter to Danger, but it mattered to me, I was the modest one, and Danger was, well, he was Danger). It was only 7:30 pm and the sun was only beginning to set, so it would have to just wait. Danger was a little pissed-off at me for being such a chicken, but he got over it.

We drove down Hollywood Boulevard to the place where we knew we could always find a free parking spot. It was in a lot that belonged to the Garden Court Apartments at the corner of Hollywood and Highland (now, part of the Kodak Theater, home of the Academy Awards, occupies the area where the lot was).

The Garden Court was the home of many movie stars in the early days of Hollywood, and even had a secret speak-easy tucked away down stairs during prohibition. It was also featured in the Cheech and Chong movie “Cheech and Chong’s Next Movie.”

It was directly across the street from the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, where Danger and I once saw Liz Taylor come out of the lady’s room. We both did a double take, and then realized it was really Liz because of the rocks she had on. Great big fucking diamonds!

From there, we walked down the boulevard a couple of blocks to Grauman’s Chinese Theater (now Mann’s Chinese Theater), and looked at all the footprints in the concrete and watched all the tourists try to fit their feet into their favorite star’s impressions. They happened to be filming a movie there that night, “Fade To Black” and I can remember it was a scene where someone was supposed to be falling from the roof of the theater to the ground.

They had about sixty or so extras standing in the area where the footprints are and they were supposed to scream and act shocked and move their heads in time, up and then down, when the person fell, but they had to keep re-taking the scene because one lady in the very front kept looking down at the ground at the wrong time, before the body was supposed to hit.  This old lady just couldn’t get it right, and Danger and I had a big laugh watching them shoot the scene over and over again.

We got tired of watching them, and since there was no one famous there to see, we decided to walk down to the wax museum. Danger had never been there before and I decided it was time he got to see what it was all about, and besides, I wanted to get him alone in one of the dark areas.

Outside the wax museum was the guy that was always there. A man that was dressed up to resemble Charlie Chaplin, and he did a pretty good job of it too. He would stand motionless, like one of the wax statues, and as some unsuspecting tourist walked up and got close enough to check him out, he would suddenly move and scare the holy shit out of them. This night it was no different, and we watched as a man and his wife, probably from some mid-western state, nearly fainted when “Charlie” jumped off his pedestal and extended his arm to shake hands with the man. We had a good laugh at that too.

Thankfully, the girls decided to take off on their own to go do some shopping at the army surplus store to get some boots (see what I mean?). I was finally alone with Danger, and we bought the tickets and did the tour. He was really impressed, I guess I was just too jaded, and had seen it too many times with visiting relatives and my grandparents to think there was anything extraordinary there, but he really enjoyed it. And, we did find a dark, secluded spot to make out for a few minutes before the tourists caught up with us and ruined the moment.

We headed back out on the street and watched the usual parade of tourists, hippies, and freaks. We saw a man that was carrying a cross that had a wheel on the bottom of it, and surrounded by kids handing out religious tracts. Danger told him that if he really wanted to make an impression he should remove the wheel and let us nail him to it. The guy wasn’t amused, but we sure were.

We met up with the girls and headed back to the car. I told them that I wanted to drive down Sunset Boulevard to the beach at Malibu, and they agreed that that would be a fun drive and so we set off toward Beverly Hills, Westwood, and the beach.

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Chapter 4-Sunset Boulevard

We piled into the Connie, boys in front and girls in back. Danger slammed an 8-track of the Eagles “Hotel California” into the dashboard player, because it was one of his favorite albums, and because it was good cruising music, and turned it up until the speakers couldn’t stand it. I started the beast up and we left the parking lot, turned right on Hollywood Blvd., then hung a left at La Brea and headed down one long block and hung another right on Sunset, driving at breakneck speed, almost drawing the attention of some LAPD motor cops. Fortunately for us, Danger spotted the cops and warned me so I could slow down to the speed limit.

Getting a ticket on my first night out alone with my friends in my uncle’s car would have really fucked up the evening. I thanked Danger and told him that I would thank him more, later. He wanted, of course, to be thanked more right then and there, but I told him I couldn’t drive and give him a blowjob at the same time, but he was more than welcome to give me one, and so, being true to his nature, he reached down and unbuttoned my levis, pulled my cock out and went to business. It was very difficult to drive, but, since I was so horny already, it wasn’t long before the job was done and I was back to concentrating on the road. He smacked his lips and smiled at the girls in the back seat, and they just groaned in disgust.

We passed from the town of Hollywood into the city of Beverly Hills and passed the Beverly Hills Hotel just as the song Hotel California came on. I was amazed at the timing. Danger liked the music, but I think he liked that fact that Alistair Crowley, the author of the Satanic Bible, was photographed in the crowd that is on the balcony of the Beverly Hills Hotel. He was a big fan of the black arts and Mr. Crowley was one of his favorites.

The Beverly Hills Hotel is pictured on the cover of the “Hotel California” album, and on the inside sleeve, and is just as majestic as it is in the pictures. All the big wigs that visit Hollywood stay either there or at the Chateau Marmont, where John Belushi injected a speedball, or was injected, depending on which story you want to believe, and stopped the laughter forever.

We continued onward, passing all the beautiful mansions that lined both sides of the road. These were the cheap homes though, the really fancy and expensive ones were off the main street and hidden behind huge hedges, so the stars and big shots that lived there could have their privacy.

Every couple of blocks there was some kid wearing a sandwich board announcing that he sold “Maps to the Stars Homes.”  Usually they were only half correct, as the stars moved often or the information was completely bogus to begin with. My grandparents bought one once when one of my great-aunts was visiting from back east and it was a complete waste of time, gas, and money.

We passed through Westwood, and then Brentwood, home to UCLA before traversing “Dead Man’s Curve” (made famous in the Jan and Dean song from the ’60’s) and heading into the hills of Santa Monica and Malibu.

We stopped at the Jack In the Box just before you get to Pacific Coast Highway because the girls had to pee and Danger and I had smoked a joint and had the munchies and wanted something, no, had to have something to eat. We ordered our food inside, while the girls took forever in the bathroom, as girls always seem to do, and then sat at a table eating our Jumbo Jacks and Fries and sipping our shakes. The food was, as typical, shitty, but it served its purpose, and soon we were back on our journey.

We were only a few blocks from the ocean, where Sunset dead ends into PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) and almost runs smack into the parking lot of Gladstone’s restaurant, a very high priced lobster house that caters to the upper echelon of Malibu and Santa Monica, and sits on the border of both cities. It has been washed out to sea too many times to remember by the huge storm swells that occur with every “El Nino” and yet they keep rebuilding it. You can sit at a seaside table that actually juts out into the ocean and watch the waves roll beneath you. The effect is really strange, and I guess the price they charge for the meals is worth the ambience, or so I have been told.

We turned left onto PCH and headed toward the Santa Monica Pier, where they have a merry-go-round, bumper cars, and assorted arcade games. The girls went off on their own, to walk down the beach and mentioned that they wanted to find some surfers, while Danger and I headed for the boardwalk on the pier.

Danger and I loved the bumper cars and rode them 9 times that evening, and we played the rigged games at the arcades too. Danger also won me a six foot long stuffed snake with his marksmanship at the BB guns and I carried it around the rest of the evening, smiling and thinking about how much I really loved this man.

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Chapter 5-On The Beach

It was approaching ten o’clock and Danger and I had had enough of the boardwalk and we had spent all our quarters. There wasn’t much of anything else to do, so we thought we’d try to look for the girls and see if they wanted to go someplace else. The night was still young, and it was Friday, so we had lots of time left to party.

We looked all over for the girls and they were nowhere to be found. We were their only way home, as far as we knew, and they were not the type to just take off with strangers, so we figured they would have to eventually show up at the car, so we left them a note telling them that we would meet them back at the car at 11:30 pm.

I told Danger I felt like taking a walk on the beach, I wanted to tell him something and I needed to find the right place to tell him. He said that was fine with him and wondered why I couldn’t just tell him now, but I said no, that I wanted to wait. He shrugged his shoulders, said OK, and we went down to the beach.

The beach at night was pretty dark. There was only the light from the moon and the stars. Even the lights on the pier didn’t shine very brightly on the beach below, and under the pier it was completely dark.

I decided that the darkness under the pier was the best place to take Danger and tell him what I needed to say, and maybe even fool around a little too.

We found a spot in the sand that was dry and sat down. I looked at Danger and stared into his eyes, they were so beautiful to me, and they had a twinkle to them that could be seen even in the darkness under the pier.

I knew I had to tell him, but I was so very nervous, and was afraid of what he might say. I thought about this moment all night and the time had finally come, we were completely alone and the only sounds were those of the amusement rides up above, the people screaming and having fun, and the waves crashing in front of us.

I took his right hand in both of my hands and held it up to my heart, I think Danger was a little surprised by this, and that made me even more nervous, but I wasn’t turning back now, I was just going to come right out and tell him exactly how I felt about him.

I said in a tone barely above a whisper, “Danger, we have known each other for a while now, and we have done things we can’t tell anyone about. So I need you to know this. Danger, I love you.” He smiled and said, “I love you too, and I already knew you loved me, you didn’t have to tell me that.” I was so relieved, I felt myself blushing and warmth engulfed my entire body.

He looked at me, pulled his hand away from mine and grabbed me by the back of the neck and pulled my face to his and we kissed like we had never kissed before. It was full of a passion that we had never really shared before. And our bodies responded. We lay down in the sand and held each other and continued to kiss, not caring who might see us. It was the most wonderful moment in my life, and I never wanted it to end. Danger was all mine.

We continued to kiss and hug and writhe in the sand until we heard voices, and decided it was best to stop. So we sat up and just talked.

I asked Danger how long he knew that I was in love with him and he told me that he had known the first time we made love. He said that no one could make love like we did without actually being in love.  He had sex before with other guys, and even a couple of girls, but he said it was only sex, and not love making. With me, he knew that there was something different.

I was so happy and so in love, and I could tell Danger was too by the big grin on his face.  He held me close and told me that he never would have had the balls to tell me he loved me if I hadn’t said it first, and that shocked me, since Danger wasn’t afraid of anything, so this was the first time I saw another side of Danger, the uncertain side.

We talked about the first time we met. It was in elementary school, the first grade. He wasn’t in the same class as I was, but his class was right next door to mine. After “nutrition” break and after lunch, we all had to line up in a certain spot so our teachers could march us back to class.

The teachers did a quick head count to make sure we were all still there and then lead us back to class. His line was right next to mine, so I noticed him there one day, he was poking at some other kid, whose name I no longer remember, and ended up getting in trouble for it. His teacher, Mrs. Marsh, grabbed him by the arm and told him he had to go to the principal’s office and remain there until he could learn to behave. If that had been true, Danger would be still there today.

We pretty much never really talked or even looked at each other all throughout elementary school, the first through sixth grades, and never had the same class together. The only time we ever really talked was when one class was playing another class in some kind of sport, like kickball, or softball, and I was such a bad player that he would give me pointers.

It wasn’t until Junior High, the seventh grade, that we actually had a class together and got to know one another. He sat directly behind me in our English class and was always making smart-ass remarks, just low enough so the teacher couldn’t hear him, but loud enough that I could.  I remember laughing a few times and getting scolded for it. But Danger never got in trouble he only got me in trouble for his remarks, because I reacted. That was how our friendship started, him cracking jokes and me getting in trouble for laughing at them.

Danger had been sexually active since the sixth grade, I guess as soon as his dick could get hard, he started using it. And he had both girls and boys that he messed around with. I was completely shy, and never even had a girlfriend, much less a boyfriend before Danger came along.

It was the eighth grade, and I had a broken arm and couldn’t participate in any of the PE (physical education) classes, so I had to be in the “Corrective PE” class, the class with all the losers that for one reason or another couldn’t participate with the rest of the kids, overweight kids, kids that had some kind of physical impairment, and the like. Danger was there because he had asthma.

One day when the rest of the class was learning the dance called “The Hustle” Danger and I snuck out and he took me to a closet down the hall, and we played “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.” I was so modest, but I felt comfortable with him, apparently, because I showed him mine, and he showed me what a blowjob was. I was in heaven, and I thank God we didn’t get caught, because I would have died.

That was my first sexual experience, and it made me realize that I was different, and that I wanted to be with boys more then I wanted to be with girls. We fooled around after that every chance we could, usually at his house or mine when our folks were at work. Our first actual act of intercourse was a few months later, and I can’t recall the exact date. We had sucked each other off and then he said he wanted to do something different. I was so afraid, but it felt so good, that the fear vanished almost instantly.

We tried to avoid each other at school, because we didn’t want anyone to think we were queer, and there were guys at school that got picked on because they were branded as fags, whether they were or not, but Danger and I didn’t fit the “profile” so no one ever picked on us, but as soon as school let out, we would meet and walk home together, either to my house or his.

We talked and walked on the beach, reminiscing about all the times and places we had sex, until it was time to head back to the car and see if the girls had made it back yet. I hoped we would find them there because I didn’t want to have to go looking for them and because I wanted to get home and make love to Danger, and they were there, waiting.  They told us they found some guys to party with and had smoked a couple of joints, and from their appearance, they probably did more than that, but they weren’t telling us.

Again, we piled into the car, girls in back, boys in front, and we were all very quiet, not one of us said a word.  I think something happened to all of us out there on the beach and no one was going to tell what it was.

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Chapter 6-Dead Man’s Curve

I was cruisin' in my Stingray late one night
When an XKE pulled up on the right
And rolled down the window of his shiny new Jag
And challenged me then and there to a drag
I said, "you're on, buddy, my mill's runnin' fine
Let's come off the line, now, at Sunset and Vine
But I'll go you one better if you've got the nerve
Let's race all the way
To Dead Man's Curve"
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Well - the last thing I remember, Doc, I started to swerve
And then I saw the Jag slide into the curve
I know I'll never forget that horrible sight
I guess I found out for myself that everyone was right

"Won't come back from Dead Man's Curve"

Danger asked me if he could drive, and although he knew how, he still hadn’t gotten his Driver’s License yet, and had no insurance, and, being it was my Uncle’s pride and joy, I had to tell him no. I wasn’t used to saying no to Danger, and he wasn’t used to being told no, but he said it was ok, and we were on our way.

The beast was fired up and we took off like a bat out of hell from the parking lot onto PCH.  The speed limit on PCH is 55 MPH, and to go from standing still to 55 in just a few feet was difficult for most vehicles, and drivers, but not for the Connie with its Detroit monster V8 and me behind the wheel. We were up to 60 before we hit the bridge that crosses over PCH and connects Lincoln Avenue to the pier, a little less than a block’s distance.

Danger wanted to go back home along Sunset instead of taking the freeway. I wanted to get back home as fast as possible, but, since I had to tell him he couldn’t drive, the only thing I could do was to at least grant him this request. He also wanted to cruise up Santa Monica Blvd., so we could stare at all the pretty boy hookers.

If you wanted a male hooker, you cruised Santa Monica Blvd., if you wanted a female hooker you took Sunset. You could pick up a tranny (transvestite) on either street, and on more than one occasion, the news was filled with someone that did just that, and the story wasn’t always a happy one. I can recall Danny Bonaduce’s walk on the wild side, when he was arrested for slapping one person who misrepresented himself. Eddie Murphy claimed he was just giving the working girl a ride, when he picked her up at 2am.

I had to turn right out of the parking lot, since there was no way to cross PCH safely where we were, and that meant we were headed in the wrong direction, so I had to flip a tit (make a u-turn) at the next light and backtrack.

We zoomed down PCH at 15 miles per hour over the speed limit, 70 miles per hour, and yet there were still cars passing us, so Danger told me to put the pedal to the medal and keep up. I could do that. I accelerated up to 85 and was keeping up with a Jag before we all had to stop for the light at Chautauqua.

The guy in the Jag was handsome and in his 30’s and was probably some kind of movie mogul or some movie star’s boyfriend, or so we decided. He kept looking over at us and revving his engine, which is the international sign of “I wanna race ya.” Danger and I looked at each other and I could see by the grin on Danger’s face that he wanted me to accept the challenge, and so the gauntlet had been thrown down, and I picked it up, mostly to make Danger happy, but also, because I liked going fast.

We were fairly well matched, I suspected, except for maybe weight, the Connie was a lot longer, and probably a little heavier, but we both had V8 automatics.

It’s only a few block from Chautauqua to Sunset, but there are no lights in between, just a short run, but enough of a distance to prove our mettle, American motor power against British flash.

I hit the gas and the Connie shot off the line, and the Jag was right beside us. We got to the light at Sunset and were neck and neck. The Jag slammed on his brakes and so did I and we came to a stop right on the line. It was a tie, as far as I could tell, and when I looked over at the Jag, the driver smiled and I knew he thought it was a tie too.

The road ahead from the intersection of Sunset goes through Malibu, and is curved and uneven, because of all the mudslides and floods that occur there with regular frequency.  I was not really feeling comfortable with continuing our race on PCH, so I put on my turn signal and made a right on Sunset. To my astonishment, the Jag cut the guy behind me off and roared past him to catch up to me on Sunset. Although I had a head start, I wasn’t pushing it, and the Jag caught up to us right away and, once again, we were both stopped at another light squaring off. I wasn’t going to let this bastard get the better of me and embarrass me in front of Danger, I made my mind up I was going to win this round.

We both took off and he broke traction, which made me smile, since it meant he had also lost some much-needed speed. We rounded several turns with the Connie just barely ahead of the Jag, its tires screeching with every sharp twist of the road and I beat the Jag to the next light and when the Jag finally got there Danger rolled down the window and gave the driver a one-finger salute and let out a war holler. Danger was all pumped now, and so was I, the sweet taste of victory on both of our lips.

I looked over at the Jag driver and he scowled at me and flipped us off just as the light turned green and we were once again off, with the Jag seeing just taillights.  He took so much time trying to show us what a man he was that he didn’t get off the line fast enough and we smoked him. We were two car lengths ahead of him when we had to stop at the next red light. I was a little amazed, and very proud of how that Connie showed up the “high performance” Jag. Danger rubbed the dash and said to the Connie, “good baby.” And turned to me and smiled a big toothy grin. I was happy too.

This time, we wouldn’t have the advantage of the Jag driver not paying enough attention, and his facial expression spoke volumes, it said he was ready and waiting to blow us away and his hand gripped the wheel like a vice, we could actually see his knuckles turning white, and it made me a little nervous, but I wasn’t going to back down now. Not unless I was forced to.

Again, both cars shot off the line like they were cannon balls on rails. We screeched through a few more turns and I got caught behind a grandma in a Volkswagen. I tried to veer into the right-hand lane and I guess I over-steered a little because I felt the Connie start to lose traction on the front wheels.  The steering was impossible now, since once the Connie lost control, it took a lot of force to get it back under control, and there wasn’t enough time or road for that to happen.

We hit the curb, bounced up and over it, and that 3000-pound Lincoln wasn’t going to stop at this point, and mashing on the brakes now was an exercise in futility. There just wasn’t any way to stop the beast, and we continued and right through the thin guardrail.

In the few microseconds that all of this was occurring in, a hundred thoughts were passing through my mind at lightning speed. My first thought was of course getting the Connie under control, and when that didn’t happen my next thought was how I was going to face my uncle after ruining his baby. But that thought too was soon gone as we careened over the cliff and out into space.

I can remember seeing all the lights down below and even thinking I hope we don’t crash into someone’s house. I even started to chuckle, in my mind at least, when I realized that crashing into a house was the least of our worries, and it was too. The Lincoln hit the ground hard and I can recall the sounds, but not much of anything else after that.

The car rolled three times, tossing the girls out the back window and Danger out the passenger side window, and I was the only one that was still in the car when it came to a stop on its side propped against a boulder that stuck out of the side of the hill, I was later told.

When I came to, I was in a hospital, and there were tubes sticking out of me all over. There was no one in the room but me. I didn’t even know where I was at first, and then it slowly dawned on me that I was in a hospital room, and then it also dawned on me that something really bad must have happened, but I had no idea what it could have been. I couldn’t move my arms or legs, I didn’t know if they were restrained or missing, so I just screamed at the top of my lungs.

A pair of nurses rushed in and started checking me all over, for what I do not know, and it was hard for me to talk, but I managed to croak out, “what happened?” One nurse told me to calm down and said that she would call the doctor and get my grandparents. The other nurse was busy injecting something into the IV that was in my right arm, and I remember thinking, just before I passed out again, that at least I now knew I had a right arm. 

I woke up sometime later, I have no clue as to how much later, but when my eyes finally focused and my brain finally kicked in I saw my grandmother, who was crying, sitting at my side and my grandfather standing next to her. They both looked like they were in more pain than I was and it made me cry, which only made my grandmother cry harder too. Even my grandfather, who I had never seen cry had tears in his eyes. It was at that moment that I realized something was very wrong.

I remained heavily sedated for another two days and then they moved me from what I now know was ICU into a regular room. I found out that I had two broken legs, a broken shoulder, a ruptured spleen (which they had to remove), several broken ribs, black eyes and cuts and bruises too numerous to count.

When I had been settled into the regular hospital room, I finally was coherent enough to ask what happened. I still had no idea what it was that hit me. The doctor and nurses were more than willing to tell me what was wrong with me now, but no one was willing to tell me what happened, and I was getting very impatient and insistent with them, but they kept telling me to wait and see if I could remember. Well, I didn’t and now I wanted to know, so I demanded they tell me what happened right this fucking minute or I would just walk out. That, of course was an empty threat, as I wouldn’t have gotten very far, if I even made it out of bed at all.

The doctor pulled a chair over to the bed and asked me what I remembered. I told him I didn’t remember a damn thing and to stop fucking with me and tell me. He cautioned me to remain calm, and I told him I’d probably be a lot calmer if I knew what was going on. That’s when he said he could only tell me as much as he knew from what the police and paramedics had reported, but he said that he was going to wait until my grandparents came in. I said get them now! I need to know!

My grandparents must have been close by, because they were in the room almost immediately. They spoke with the doctor for a moment at the door and then the doctor left and so did my grandmother and my grandfather sat down on the edge of the bed and took hold of my right hand in his. Again, there were tears in his eyes, and so, again, mine filled with tears too.

Grandpa said that I had been in an accident, and that I was really lucky to be alive, since the car I was driving was completely destroyed, he asked if I remembered anything about the accident, and I told him that I didn’t even know it was an accident, and had no idea that I was driving when it happened.

He went on to tell me that something had happened while I was driving my uncle’s Lincoln, and that no one was completely sure but that I was probably speeding at the time. He continued and told me that I had gone over a cliff and that when they found me I was still strapped in the car. That’s when it hit me.

“Where is Danger and where are the girls?” I cried. Then his face took on a very serious look and the tears flowed freely now, and he just looked down and said in a low voice, “they’re gone.” “They can’t be.” I screamed at him, “they must be in another hospital or something, they can’ be gone. What to you mean, gone? Where is Danger? Tell me now!”

My grandfather squeezed my hand hard and said, that they weren’t in another hospital, and that I was the only one that was found alive, the girls, and my beloved danger were killed instantly when they hit the ground. I was the only one left.

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Copyright © January 2006-Dale Stephens--All Rights Reserved