The Answer I Didn’t Know I Wanted

There we were on another Friday night. It was me, my girlfriend, her friends and a couple of other friends. We were juniors in high school just doing what high schoolers do, hanging out. And like a lot of teenagers, we thought we needed some alcohol to enhance the evening. 

Now, I come from the era before everyone had cell phones. So if you were going to call a ‘buyer’ from one of your friend’s parents houses you had to be discreet. And if you couldn’t get a hold of them or they didn’t show up on time at the designated drop site, well, you were out of luck. 

This particular Friday night was bitterly cold and early in the evening, a light snow started to fall. As the evening went on the snow started to fall more heavily. We were waiting in my car for the ‘goods’ to show up, but the later it got the more grim the outlook looked as far as the ‘goods’ being delivered. 

I’m not sure how much time passed but it started to get late and we all decided we’d better head our separate ways and went home. I had to take my girlfriend and two of her friends home and that’s where things went South. 

Let me set the stage. 

I had a 1972 Mustang Fastback with a 351 Cleveland motor. And I liked speed and screwing around. Everyone knows how fun it is to do donuts and fishtail in the snow. It was snowing hard too.

However, this night was different. As we were going around a curve close to the girl’s house we were going to, I asked her if cars were allowed to park on the street during a snow emergency. I was going to gas it so we’d fishtail and slide around the curve a little bit. She said she didn’t know, so to my regret, I didn’t do it. 

About that time I felt the car continue sliding straight even though I was turning to the right. Then all of the sudden, and I can still see it as clear today as when it happened, there she was. A giant Oak tree was right in front of me and I crashed right into it. 

I was knocked out briefly, my girlfriend’s friend hit the back of her seat and pushed her into the windshield shattering her nose. And the other girl twisted her ankle under my seat. They were all pretty minor injuries for the most part and everyone healed up just fine. 

I was the seventh car to hit that tree. Needless to say it’s gone now but I don’t know what took them so long to cut it down. 

The blessing in disguise was that we never got any booze. It was bad enough that I crashed into a tree. But it would’ve been ten times worse had I been drinking. 

I wasn’t praying that we’d get booze that night, although we did want it. But sometimes we don’t get what we pray for or ask for and it’s actually a blessing in disguise. So if you think God’s not answering your prayers just remember sometimes it’s not the answer you want. It’s still an answer though.