I was sitting behind the wheel, the sun shining straight into my windshield, with some music playing in the background. My mind was running with the things I would be telling my Dad as soon as I got to work. I work for my Dad in Orem and after a day of school, and unfinished homework, I was making my way over in my little car.
I consider myself to be a patient driver: I don't get angry or offended when I am cut off or when cars are going a couple digits under the speed limit. I understand that everyone has their bad days, run late, or makes mistakes here and there. After all, none of us are perfect. I only hope that others will be as understanding to me when I make minor driving mistakes. I was driving on University Parkway, making my way in the center lane with stores passing by me on both sides. For some reason, there appeared to be a lot more cars in the road on this day than other days and I noticed that the lane I was driving in was moving along slower than the two next to me. This didn't bother me much at all but since the right lane was going faster and I needed to switch over anyway to get on the freeway, I saw a gap, flipped my turn signal on, checked, and made my way to the right lane sooner rather than later.
As I switched over, I saw a minivan a couple cars ahead of me in the center lane had a mattress on top.
"That's probably why the lane was moving a little slower," I thought to myself. "There's a minivan with a mattress on top." As I got thinking about this minivan and the mattress. My mind drifted to any and all cars that carry cargo on the roof. Sometimes the cargo is professionally packed in little containers on top of the car. Other times (especially on short runs home from the store) the cargo is amateurishly tied on top with a random knot the owner knew how to tie in whatever rope the owner could find.
A couple seconds later, I found myself passing this minivan on the right. Feeling a little curious as to whether the owner of this minivan and mattress was a professional or amateur top-of-roof cargo carrier, I glanced to my left to get a better view of this sight.
"Where's the rope?" I thought to myself. I found no stripe running down the side of the car or the mattress. Thinking that maybe the rope blended into the car or was hidden somewhere else, I took another glance. At that time, a second thought came:"Maybe the mattress contours perfectly to the top of the van so a rope isn't necessary to hold it down." (I don't know why this thought popped in my head because obviously this never is the case. Let's say I had a very naive moment)
During the one second (it literally was only one second because I couldn't take my eyes off the road for too long) I glanced over, I watched the minivan pick up a little speed; the wind flowed right under the mattress, and flipped it clean off the roof. Immediately, the car behind it screeched to a stop and the van continued on it's 45 mph journey. I couldn't believe what I had just witnessed! I glanced in my rear-view mirror and took a look at the near-accident scene behind me: smoke dissipating from the wheels of the car that slammed on its brakes, the mattress lying centimeters in front, and a second car that miraculously stopped in time behind the first car. By this time, the minivan was traveling well ahead of me with no clue to the trauma it almost caused.
As I've thought about this event more and more, I've realized how blessed I truly am to have only just witnessed it. Only a couple seconds before the mattress flew off, I was driving along behind the car that had to slam on its brakes and stop in less than a second. I don't know if I would've been able to react that quickly which means I probably would've rear-ended the car: giving me my first accident behind the wheel. I'm so glad I was somewhat bothered by the slow movement of the center lane and switched lanes when I did to avoid this incident. I am also so grateful that the 2nd car was able to stop in time so that no accident happened. I think that sometimes we see or experience these close calls to help us remember how blessed we actually are. I know that I am so blessed I didn't have a heart attack and through this, I know that Heavenly Father is always watching over me.
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