Asleep At The Wheel

In the summer of 2005, I was working as a quality control associate at Hewlett Packard. Essentially, all I did was make sure the parts looked like the model. At the same time, I was attending the first session of summer school at Pine View A & M. Not to be confused in any way with the most prestigious Prairie View A & M University located in Texas. I said what I said…

I was trying to bring my GPA up after having been on academic probation in my second semester, then suspended for the third. Let’s just say my freshman year was full of educational experiences that weren’t found in lectures and textbooks. My girlfriend, at the time, Layla and I had found a house with an available room for rent. It was cheaper than signing a lease agreement in an apartment complex. It was located just off campus behind the PV Grocery Store. It was a three-bedroom house, and we occupied the room in the back of the house. The kitchen was right outside our door, and the one bathroom was in the hallway leading to the living room. The room had a closet with the actual door missing. The empty floor space in the closet served as Leah’s area. Leah was a brown and white pit-bull puppy Layla and I found on Craigslist. We had a bed, a dresser, and a television. Typical college possessions. One car between the two of us, which was hers. The situation was livable for the summer.

I was attending the classes in the mornings on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, as early as 8:00am. I worked overnight. So, after my last class, you better believe I slept, hard. Layla attended summer classes as well but had a completely different schedule from mine. I don’t remember her working… Anyways, one of my classmates, Kevin, also worked in the warehouse on the overnight shift. Kevin was a senior who was getting ready to graduate at the end of the next semester.

One morning, after we finished what seemed like the longest shift ever, Kevin agreed to let me drive his car back to the campus. Now let me explain... Kevin drove a 2003 Mercedes Benz E-Class. I felt special just riding in it. He kept it with clean, leather seats (heated), adjustable passenger A/C, GPS, and just luxurious enough to say the least. Well, it was luxurious to me. If all these features came standard, he said they did, I could see why they cost so much. Now, I understood what the big deal was about buying a Mercedes. So, as I get in the driver’s seat, I just have this feeling of, what I can only describe as ‘SUCCESS!” come over me. I start the car, and it just starts to vibrate softly. No sudden movements once so ever. My mind is being blown with every interaction with this car.

We get on the road. The sun starts to come up in the rearview mirror. We get to the Walmart on Highway 092. Almost home. The car drove like it was floating just above the ground, hoovering. The sound system was elegant. I remember how comfortable the seats were. Like riding in a cloud. A warm, vanilla smelling cloud. They just held me and made me feel so relaxed. So relaxed…

Then, out of nowhere, I feel the car start to vibrate. None of my senses could identify or comprehend the vibrating. It was very out of place. This vibration contradicted the seats, the cushions, the adjustable A/C, and all of the elegance I previously described. Our cell phones didn't vibrate this hard. What was vibrating so hard?

I had fallen asleep at the wheel. The intense vibrations I was feeling were the indentations along the freeway designed to alert drivers that they were headed off the road. When I opened my eyes, we were headed through the grassy median, to the other side of the freeway, into oncoming traffic. “Oh Shit!” I yelled as I yanked on the steering wheel to the right, over correcting our course. This wakes Kevin up out of his sleep. “What the fuck is happening!?” He yells while grabbing onto the dashboard and arm rest. The car swerves back onto the main road. As I struggle to regain control of this elegantly, comfortable death machine, I see in my rearview, that I have put us on course for a crash collision with an 18-wheeler. “Oh shit!” We both yell. Instinctively, my foot rams the gas pedal. We pass in front of the 18-wheeler with the space of about half of a car. Now the car is aimed at the far-right side of the freeway. We swerve, yet again, through grass and lose dirt. Leaving skid marks on the pavement of the freeway. The car slides and then comes to a stop, finally. I could only assume his heart was beating through his chest like mine was.

Me: Bro! I am so sorry. I fell asleep…

Kevin: Man! What the fuck?!?

I was scared and in shock at the same time. Amazed that we actually made it across 3 lanes of oncoming traffic without a scratch. I could tell he was angry, but also worried and coming down from fear as well.

Kevin: Are you ok?

M: Yeah. I just got super comfortable. I’m sorry… I dozed off like a second, then I felt the ridges in the road.

We got out of the car and looked around. There were skid marks on the freeway, and tracks in the grass going back a good one hundred yards. The sides of the Mercades were covered in dirt at the bottom and all over the wheels. But no dints or scrapes that either of us could see. We looked at each other with, what felt like relief. We got back in the car. Kevin took the driver's side. I buckled up in the passenger seat. We were about five or six minutes away from my place. I continued apologizing the rest of the way home. As we pulled up to my house, he put the car in park and got out. We both looked around the car again. The only thing we noticed was some dirt and a piece of tread missing from one of the back tires.

Me: Aye, if you have to get anything fixed or replaced, just let me know how much it costs and I got you.

Kevin: You're good man, I’m just glad we’re both ok.

Me: No! For real, let me know.

K: Bet

He looked around the car one last time. We shook hands, and he got back in the car and drove off. I headed into the house, with the thought of being saved by God's grace one more time. I would’ve told Layla about the near-death experience, but I just laid next to her and fell asleep. I don’t think I ever got around to telling her what happened that morning.