A short note on the subject of how my wife is a hero.


I don't have a lot of time, so I'll be brief:

At the nexus of two major megatropolitan freeways a deathproof youth made a last moment decision to exit. He attempted to yank his car full of his friends across five lanes of dense traffic speeding along at 130 kph.

He lost control. The car careened into the side of a minivan that had been driving ahead of the long tractor-trailer beside Littlestar's car. The young man's car and the minivan spun off in separate directions across the lanes trailing rooster-tails of broken glass.

The tractor-trailer jacknifed, its cabin facing Littlestar as it plowed sideways along the highway. A dozen cars made evasive manouevres in a heartbeat.

"Brake -- shoulder!" said Scarlet from the passenger seat. Littlestar wrenched the car onto the shoulder to dodge the melee and then crossed the blank space of highway in front of the truck as it teetered in place. Ahead and to the right the minivan and the first car had come to a halt at the end of a path of broken metal and plastic.

Scarlet's legs turned to rubber, but Littlestar got out of the car. She went to each of the smashed vehicles and assessed the injuries, which were fortunately all very minor. The man in the minivan said, "I feel like I almost lost of my life."

"You did," said Littlestar. So he cried and called his wife.

The kids in the other car were all in shock. A girl in the passenger seat was hyperventilating. The kid in the back had injured his leg. The driver was a pliant zombie. Littlestar talked them down.

When she went to corral the other witnesses who had stopped somebody offered her a cellphone and said, "I already dialed nine-one-one." So Littlestar took the phone and did the talking.

Paramedics and police arrived, so Littlestar and Scarlet got back in the car and headed for work. They were late, but nobody was mad. Littlestar called to tell me about the whole thing, and now I'm mentioning it to you.

Key points:

#1. People show their true colours in a crisis. Littlestar rocks.

#2. I could've lost her. Jesus Murphy Brown!

#3. If you're in danger of missing your exit on the freeway, for the sake of all that's holy please get off at the next exit and circle back. I know it sucks but -- c'mon. I mean, c'mon. It's ten minutes out of your life versus being a potential source of major carnage.

This is all.