25 October 2012

Heels Over Head

Heels Over Head

a real-life adventure

to anyone who has ever had a bad wreck

Now available in ebook format!

Chapter One

For a brief instant, I didn't know for sure if I'd be alive when the car stopped moving. I knew I was upside down, but I didn't know what direction I was heading. Or where the car would land.

Pavement grinding across the roof of the car and fracturing the windshield had replaced the comforting whispery rhythm of raindrops. The fresh aroma of moisture-laden pine had been replaced by the bitter and suffocating stench of burning plastic. I remember thinking my airbag had replaced a few of my front teeth. With air.

I assumed my children were dead. They screamed when the tail end of the car veered to the right on the rain soaked interstate. But then they were silent. Frightfully silent. My deepest fear had always been who would take care of them if anything happened to me. For that fragment of a second, however, my life didn't flash before me, and I didn't think of all the things I wouldn't get to do. All I could think of was my kids.

Who would take care of me if I survived and they didn't?

What if we all died? Would my children greet me with their customary hugs and smiles when I joined them in that bright white light people talk about as they recount near death experiences? I wondered if Taz and Raz would ever speak to me again, being as I'd been the one behind the wheel when their short lives ended.

I wondered what I'd say to God.

"I know it must seem right now as if I didn't appreciate Your entrusting these two precious children to my care. I really do love them. I didn't mean for this to happen..."

The car finally came to a halt after skidding off the jersey barrier in the muddy median. The silence was deafening. Not even the blaring of my horn and full throttle revving of my engine could drown out the quiet. I didn't immediately realize the horror was over, or that I was hanging upside down from my seatbelt.

Even my heart and my lungs were still. I was afraid to move. Until I heard first one scream from the back seat, then a strained second. My heart leaped into action. My children were alive!

Read Part II here.

Table of Contents

Copyright 2012 by Deborah and Brett Atkinson
All rights reserved. No part of this book - prose, photos or graphics - may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without express prior written permission of the author.

14 comments :

  1. You certainly gripped me with this...

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    1. Thank you, Eleanor! It's good to have feedback. I was really getting nervous that everyone was leaving before even finishing it!

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  2. Replies
    1. :) Yes, it was. Ranks right up there in the top ten scariest things I've ever experienced. Which is why I've written the book...

      Hope you are feeling well and DONE!!!

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  3. Are you gonna continue posting it here?

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    1. Yes, every Thursday. I'm building a Table of Contents as I go, too, and the link for that is in the top right-hand corner of this blog.

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  4. I've been saving this post for when I had time to read slowly and appreciate it. Very gripping (even though I knew you survived the crash). Also very thought-provoking: the things that go through the mind at a time like this. I can imagine, just a little, how you must have felt when your kids made those first sounds.

    Looking forward to reading the story as it unfolds.

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    1. Thanks, Sue. It's difficult sometimes going back and reading it again, because some of the emotions are still as intense as they were in 1996. But I'm really glad I wrote all this down because I'm sure I wouldn't have remembered the details if I hadn't, and there are so many choice experiences with my kids I'm so glad I wrote and didn't lose forever due to the trauma of this experience.

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  5. Even tho I knew you and your children survived the accident you still held me spellbound.

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    1. Thanks, Brenda. I don't know if I could have written about the accident if I had lost anyone...

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  6. Oh my gosh, I haven't gone to the 2nd chapter yet, getting ahold of myself, I cannot imagine the terror.

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    1. It does get better, with time, but you are right, Glor. It was absolutely terrifying for several days.

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  7. Very scary. You've captured the fear very well here.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, CameraGirl. I think you've boosted my confidence in my writing a bit!

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