Читать книгу Ten Twenty Ten - Stephen Polando - Страница 2

Do you ever know when it will be the worst year in your life?

It was February 2009 and my mom had gone back to Michigan to celebrate her 50th birthday there with her brothers, sisters, and other family and friends. The party was on Valentine’s Day, because it was a Saturday, and I was in Tempe.

Late in the afternoon I was on my way to pick up my brother, Nicholas, at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix. I was still hung over from the night before and had also spent the afternoon drinking.

I made it one mile from the apartment before I rear-ended somebody. I had also almost rear-ended somebody else, just before the actual accident. It might have even been the same person, I don’t even really know. I smashed into the back of a car as I tried to pass them and ended up out in the intersection of Rural Road and Rio Salado Parkway in Tempe. That didn’t seem like the place to stop, though. So I continued north on Rural looking for the next chance to pull off onto a side road.

Unfortunately, that’s the Salt River bridge, which was about a quarter-mile away. When I tried to turn right, the car didn’t do so effectively because of the first accident, so I went turning into oncoming traffic before swerving left onto the sidewalk. I came to a stop by slamming into a fire hydrant and knocking it down.

I sat there for a moment then panicked. My first action was to pour out the beer I was hiding in an iced-tea can in the center console. A very destroy-the-evidence move. As if that was going to save me from all the carnage I had just caused over the last quarter-mile. I got out of the car and just sat on a wall. I waited for the police to show up.

I was trying to compose myself as a lady approached me with an aggressive combination of “Are you okay?” and “What the fuck were you doing?” The only thing I remember her asking was if I had been drinking. I said no. Shortly after that the cops showed up.

I would be arrested, then pass out in the back of the cop car, and then booked. For the entire evening, all I could think about was how was I going to tell my mother.

It came with a level of anxiety I had never experienced before.

She had lost her sister because of somebody like me, and her ex-husband had accumulated three DUIs, which no doubt affected her child support. This is the one mistake I should never have made. I was convinced she would rather be told I was suspected of shooting somebody rather than be told this information. I expected the absolute worst. Like, she might never talk to me again. Finally, about 24 hours after the accidents occurred, I grew the balls to call her.

Did I mention this would be the worst year in my life? And it had only started.