Free Diving

It was so peaceful. He was free diving in warm, clear tropical water. The fish were abundant, visibility outstanding and he dove down deeper to peruse the shells on the ocean’s sandy bottom. The depth was 30 feet, manageable, but he had to be careful not to lapse out from lack of oxygen. This was a fun sport, but was not a forgiving one.

He grabbed a beautiful, vacated abalone shell and began a modest rate of ascent. His flippers were propelling him, but not so fast as to dangerously put himself at risk of decompression sickness while ascending. As the pressure of the water above him decreased on his approach to the surface he slowly allowed a small trickle of air bubbles to escape his lips, a habit picked up from scuba diving, a slow exhale during ascent. He looked down taking a moment to hover in the water as if floating in air. A stingray fluttered about in the sand and a crab with a sideways saunter. The bright sun was shining diffusely through the water. With his face turned up directly toward the sky, eyes closed, he breached the water’s surface and took a deep, delicious breath of air. He opened his eyes.

‘What the heck is going on? Where am I,’ wondered the free diver. He was not in the tropics. He wasn’t in the ocean or some warm tropical sea. He was wearing jeans, a t-shirt and had awakened in the cab of his car. A car accident! He was regaining consciousness from having passed out from a car crash.

The air bags had deployed leaving visibility only through the driver’s side window. Before fully regaining himself he thought momentarily that this is what it might look like for an astronaut awakening from a deep sleep, the darkened cab with only the one partially exposed window mimicked what he figured to be comparable to a space capsule. Nope, just a car accident. Sirens could be heard in the distance. He hoped there’d be no additional cars colliding with his vehicle now immobilized in the middle of the intersection.

The seriousness of the situation was taking root. He had been listening to sports talk radio and it was still on, now competing audibly with the wounded bleating of the car’s engine. In the face of this new development he lost interest in the commentary about last night’s playoff basketball game and turned off the radio. The engine was still running and sounded odd, plus there was a smell of burnt rubber and chemicals. He turned off the car. He wanted to get out but was concerned about his safety from oncoming traffic. He tried looking out the window, but the deployed air bags obstructed the view. He decided to chance it, open the door and take a look. This initial effort was negated by a compromised element of the door or its latching device. At this point he sat back and wondered if he was hurt in any way. A quick review revealed no breaks, no sharp pains, only a little blood on his right knee from scraping on the keys hanging in the ignition. His head was in a fog, but his early assessment was that he was OK.

A second effort to open the door, boosted with a shoulder bump, proved successful. Looking around, there were no cars coming, many had remained at their traffic stops. He grabbed his phone off the floor, keys and sunglasses, stepped out of the vehicle and took a quick look around. The car had been pushed 90-degrees to the left, the other car had hopped the curb and run into a traffic pole knocking it down.

‘Well shoot, this is a crummy start to the day. Let’s get out of traffic, sit on the curb over there and see what happens next,’ so went his mental dialogue. He walked to the curb, sat down and looked at the other car. The driver’s door was open and the driver was on the phone. Eye contact had not yet been made.

[The car accident sequence is based on a recent occurrence.]