micah takes photographs

around noon today, caroline and i got in a car accident. we’re not really sure what happened, but before you worry – everyone is okay. totaled cars and bruises seem to the worst of it, thank god.

we had just gone to the bank, deposited some money. the plan was to go to lunch; caroline had told me she was having lunch with teri today, and i should go along and surprise her. we were on our way… somewhere. some cuban restaurant. neither of us remembers exactly how it went down. one second we were slowly turning right at a T intersection, and the next second, the airbags were deployed and we were spinning. caroline was saying "i’m sorry" over and over again.

it felt like minutes that we were spinning, but i’m sure it was seconds. there was some horrible strange smoke, from the airbags, that hurt to breathe. i think i rolled down the window first thing after we stopped. i heard a kid screaming.

then, if i remember, i took out my phone, dialed 911, and caroline got out the drivers side. i crawled over my hat, which i now realized wasn’t on my head, and thru the drivers side, and tried to figure out what to tell them on the phone. i told them the intersection. they asked me if we needed an ambulance, and i ran around trying to see who was hurt. i wasn’t the only one, some bystanders were doing the same. there was a blue car that was in the middle of the road, with a guy running around screaming angrily at caroline, "didn’t you see me?? i have kids in the car!!" none of them said they were bleeding.

then i realized there was another car down the street. it was flipped over, an suv on its head. i yelled to the people standing by it to see if anyone was inside, or injured. neither. i don’t know how. we feverishly paced back and forth, looking at things, trying to figure out what to do next. i was shaking so much. the ambulances came from either direction, and the cops were soon after. they collected information as i hugged caroline and shook like a leaf in the wind.

there was a tiny bump on my leg, and i could hardly feel it. i told them it wasn’t serious, caroline said she had no injuries, and as they tested everyone else, we found out that absolutely everyone was ok. there was a stranger, someone standing around, that gave me a bottle of water and firmly told me to calm down – everyone was ok. thank you, for that woman.

it wasn’t caroline’s car, it was her brothers. she was on the phone with him. she was on the phone with all kinds of people, trying to figure out what to do. the cop called AAA for us, and soon after, a towtruck just showed up, that was not AAA, that the cop told us not to trust. he stood around talking to us for a bit, then left when we decided to wait for AAA to show up.

the street was a mess. leaking oil and washer fluid, two cars in the middle of a 4 lane road, one down the way flipped over. scraps of metal and plastic were everywhere. i was tough, trying to help out when i could, take care of business. i figured i should call my dad, before the cops do, and… because he’s my dad. i stepped aside to call him, and broke down a bit. i started crying. i don’t know how many people in my life have seen me cry, but it’s unusual for me to be very open with my dad. i laughed and cried at the same time, i couldn’t help it. it wasn’t funny, it was just… emotion, escaping from my mouth. he said to double check to make sure no one’s neck hurt, or that no one had an injury once the adrenaline wore down.

and just then, i got a phone call from a number i didn’t know. it was one of the people from craigslist that i’d been trying really hard to get ahold of, a guy with a sailboat that i could potentially live on. now, i know i haven’t been updating my blog, but i got to california on monday, and pretty much every day i’ve been trying my hardest to find a place to live. i really want to live on a sailboat, it’s just kind of a dream of mine. and every one i’ve found so far hasn’t worked out, and now, here, this one good looking one is calling me back. i was so calm on the phone with him. told him i’d gotten in a small (huge) accident, that i was probably (definitely) not able to come see the boat today, and that i would call him back tomorrow to figure out a good time in the next day or so to come check it out (how??). he was very chill about it.

i had just finished collecting myself, when caroline came over, to tell me that the lunch we were going to before all this happened… it wasn’t me surprising teri. it was a handful of my friends surprising me. they all knew i was back in town, even tho i hadn’t told anyone really yet, and they wanted to make me feel better after the last few months being kind of rough, and welcome me back to town. i cant remember everyone she said was in on it, but i remember teri, alma, pacho, yanko, nicole, janet, thomas, romina, jamie, mimi… these kids were at the restaurant, waiting to throw me a surprise welcome back lunch. i lost it, i cried. i’m tearing up now thinking about it. they did all that for me? all those people? for me?

by now, her car was the last one to get towed, it was being loaded onto a truck. they were cleaning up the road, almost everyone was gone, save one or two bystanders left. that bump on my leg started hurting pretty bad, and i wanted to get home so i could put a little ice on it. out of curiosity, and because my dad recommended i double check, i lifted up my pant leg one more time… to find that it had swollen to the size of a gravy boat. it was this huge lump visibly sticking out of my leg. i didn’t know what to make of it. i limped over to the one bystander left, a kid a little younger than me. he looked at it, and we started talking. he’d been in an accident like this once, and he had a lump like that – it was a broken leg. fuck. it can’t be a broken a leg. i’ve never broken a bone in my life. it just can’t be. i don’t have health insurance. i can’t afford a broken leg. i considered ignoring it, but that possibility… caroline called the one policeman left back over (he was a super nice guy, from brooklyn he told me when he saw my license), and he called the EMT’s back for me.

they remembered me, we joked around a little. they said if i could walk on it, it wasn’t broken, and i could. but they also said you never know what it could be, and it’s better to be safe than sorry. i’m an adult, they told me, and it’s my decision, insurance or no. you don’t know how conflicted i was at that second. i climbed in the ambulance, and as we started towards LA Metro Hospital, i asked what an xray would cost. He guy didn’t know, but he knew the ride alone was gonna be $800. hearing that caused more pain than my leg.

we got there. we waited, i filled out some papers, freaked out, and shook nervously. i couldn’t have a broken leg, i just couldn’t. i don’t have that much money. hospitals always take a long time, but the nurse finally looked at it, suggested it was a hematoma. that sounded scary, but she said it was when the capillaries under the skin burst… essentially a big fuckin’ bruise. i hoped-hoped-hoped she was right. they xrayed, and finally a doctor looked at it. no broken bones, no fractures at all. it was just a big, terrifying bump. they wrapped my leg with an ice pack underneath, gave me a prescription for super-motrin, and eventually… teri and alma picked us up.

they brought us cuban food from lunch.

in the end, the worst part was being so scared. caroline’s brother’s car sounds like it has good insurance, and should cover, hopefully, everything. she’s left without a car, and hopefully i can get to wherever i need to go somehow. i’m so glad everyone is ok. i can’t believe what happened, or how that all felt, but no one was seriously injured. my leg is unswelling now, and i’m keeping ice on it. we’re gonna be sore tomorrow, but i’m so touched that my friends did that for me, and so grateful that i’m alive, that i think i can let the rest of it slide.