9/27 swerving

9/27:
topic given- 'describe the scariest thing that ever happened to you'

The first rain of the season is always such a momentous occasion in California- a seldom occurrence. The county triumphs at the newfound dampening of the earth, each and every person taking the opportunity to run and dance and sing under the lightest sprinkle. I felt somewhat different about the event. I was on the way to school with my mom, she in the driver’s seat. It was a Friday. It wasn’t raining, but it had just rained. The road on the way to my house is very curvy, weaving in and out of the mountain it’s been carved out of. When it rains for the first time after a lengthy dry spell, the droplets are said to bring the grease from the roads to the surface, coating the new wet. This is no myth.
We drove along cautiously, cruising at forty miles an hour in a fifty-five zone. I was reading some last minute World History notes before the second period test as KJUG played on the radio. All I remember was screaming, “Mom! Stop!” as our car swerved this way and that, too many turns for even this curvy road. There was no oncoming traffic or a collision would have been inevitable. I looked at her hands clasping the wheel- her knuckles white with her tight grip. To my right was the hill down to the swimming hole, where I had spent hours swinging off the knotted rope into the deep pool. “Regain control, come on, please,” I thought, but it wasn’t possible. The car went off the road, then spun around so the trunk was the first thing heading down the incline. My backpack flew up and hit my forehead, but the pain was silenced, just as the radio seemed to be. A thick trunked tree and a heavy boulder broke our fall. It was over, and we were okay.
I instinctively unbuckled my seat belt and was immediately angry for doing so, as I worried what would happen if the car continued falling. We were in an area of no cell reception, but I attempted to dial nine-one-one just the same. “our car went off the road on highway forty-one,” but the response I received was “I’m– you’re breaking– hello?–” then silence. We feared movement since we were secure, as far as we knew, as long as we stayed still. Any shift of weight could have tragic consequences. “ARE YOU OKAY?” we heard the voice of a woman scream from above us. “HELLO? IS EVERYONE OKAY?” Tears came to my mother’s eyes as she cleared her throat to reply, “We’re fine, get help.” The woman, who had been driving our direction, had seen a car go off the road and had stopped to make sure things were all right. She flagged down four more cars- our guardian angel. Men climbed down our steep slope to check what was holding us in place. “You’re fine, that rock isn’t going anywhere,” a young man reassured us. The fire department was called and helped us out of our now mangled car-like structure. We climbed up the hill and saw that our car had fallen directly between a telephone pole and a metal road barrier, missing each by a mere five feet or so. We could have easily hit either head-on, could have been seriously injured, but all I took away from the morning was a bump on my forehead and slight whiplash. I must have done something right.