These Pictures Are Related, Just Not in The Way You Think (Patreon)

Last Tuesday I went on a little writer's retreat--I was supposed to go hole up in a friend's cabin with a few friends, but that fell through. I'd already blocked off the time and I desperately needed to go off somewhere so I could concentrate on my revisions. Since my friend Kendare also had the time blocked off, we decided to rent a little duplex and get our work done, damn it. 

And we did! I got a chapter of BT,LN up, wrote 1,000 words on a YA Project and got 100 pages of revisions done (these revisions are particularly painstaking and it's been a real slow process). I also got to talk shop with a few writer friends that stopped by, and I got to put a tiny cape on bottles of wine. I'm happy with my progress, and I could have managed more, but...

Instead someone decided that their Friday night would be better if they plowed into my minivan. Which I was not in, because I was on retreat. No, instead it was being driven by my husband--my mom had just picked him up from the airport after a long day of travel from Georgia. So they were in the van, two blocks from the house (with Smalls in the back) when the driver ran a red light and hit the van.

Then she tried to flee the scene. Which did not work at all, and she ended up crashing her car about half a block away. I'm not sure how fast she was going, but my husband was turning left on a green arrow, and so was probably going all of five to ten miles an hour. From the sizable dent, the other driver was going much faster. 

When I bought the van, I specifically did so because of its high crash test rating. The van did its job beautifully--airbags went off. It crumpled and my family didn't. (Mostly.) My husband has a sprained wrist. My mom was pinned a bit, so she has bruising on her chest, shoulders, and a wicked one on one of her knees. Smalls was a little sore, but otherwise unharmed.

So I get a phone call at retreat from my mom WHILE SHE IS PINNED AND WAITING FOR THE PARAMEDICS/FIREMAN OR WHATEVER TO GET HER OUT.

Mom: We got in a wreck.

Me: Are you okay? Is everyone okay?

Mom: Yeah, everyone's okay. I mean, I'm pinned.

Me: What?!?

Mom: Just my leg. It's fine. You need to come, though.

Me: Okay.

Mom: I've got to go, the cops are here.

And then she hung up. 

A thing you need to know about my mother--she was an ICU nurse for 50 years. She was the manager of one of those ICUs for years. She raised three, um, "spirited" children and kept us all in one piece. My mom is the very definition of unflappable. She was entire unflapped about the wreck. A little shockey when she called, but basically it was like we were discussing the weather. She felt bad that she had to call me back early. I do the same thing in emergencies, and it's a skill I'm grateful for--"deal with it now, panic later."

So I'm fairly glad that our original retreat fell through, because we would have been much further away and I wouldn't have had a car. This way, I was at the crash site in thirty minutes. By then, my mom was in the hospital, my husband was talking to the cops, and poor Smalls was wrapped in a blanket, holding a teddy bear, and in shock.

I could tell he was in shock because he wasn't that interested in the fact that he finally knew what it looked like when airbags went off. (He'd just asked me about it a few weeks ago.) My mom is fine--they gave her X-rays at the hospital just to make sure. She's bruised and sore and a little tired. My husband has his wrist wrapped (yes, he also got X-rays) and has now missed three days of work. (Kind of hard to pierce people when you can't use one of your hands.) Smalls is totally fine. We just got him checked out today by his doctor--or as he calls her, the body dentist. 

Today we also cleaned out our van at the tow place. It's toast. And got a rental, talked to a lawyer, and so on and so forth. I'm exhausted, and glad my family is okay.

I'm also behind. Hopefully I can get some Sam written tomorrow and off to the copy editor, but we'll see what other fresh bureaucratic hells appear tomorrow.

Really hoping my husband can get back to work on Friday. For financial reasons, of course, but he also loves his job. In fact, The Cut just recorded him at work for a segment they do for their YouTube channel called "First Takes." This one was people getting their first piercings. If you want to see what that looks like, click the link. If needles or blood squick you out, you should probably avoid.

Basically, we had a heck of a weekend. Hope yours was better.

-Lish