Relativity, Inc.

The headlights of my old Tahoe, shine across the small gravel driveway. I slow roll to a stop and dim the lights. Trying to not bring too much attention to me being there. Knowing full well, in just a minute or two, everyone's gonna know, I am there. I quietly open the door and step out. The Texas dust, gently swirls about and sticks to the polish on my newly shined boots. I close the door slow and easy. Then turn to walk up to the front door of the house. My stomach is in knots. My heart is a racing and yet, just as my first boot steps onto the porch, I become just as calm as a summer, Sunday morning. I quietly knock upon the outside of the door. A light comes on, from inside. A woman's voice from the other side asks, "Yes? Who is it?" I tell her my name and I am a Trooper with the Highway Patrol. I quietly and as calmly as possible explain, I needed to talk to her, for a moment. She opens the door and the next words from me, send her to her knees, in tears. She gasps for air, through her screams. Pleading with me to tell her, I was wrong. That there had to be some mistake. But, there was no mistake. I was at the right house. I had the right information and, I just crushed this poor woman's heart with what I had to say. As I knelt on the porch, I held her letting her cry, as she begged God for mercy and then, begged me not to leave her. She frantically asked what happened. I could only tell her a limited part of it all. The investigation back at the scene, all the carnage and sadness, was still on going. You see, I had to tell her, her son, her Daughter in Law and her two grandkids, a little blonde headed girl and the cutest little red headed boy, would never be coming home to her, again. They had been traveling home from Christmas break at the Daughter in Law's family. They were headed to this poor woman's house for the New Year's Weekend when, this one young lady....drunk as could be, crossed over the double yellow on an old F.M. blacktop road and struck the family head on. They never stood a chance, really. And now, here I am kneeling down on this old farm house's front porch, holding this poor lady as she tries to dial a number for someone, anyone to come be with her. She's just lost her whole world and I, I was the one who had to look her in the eye and tell her so. Friend, can I tell you something? It ain't the money, the jail time, the court costs, the attorney fees that I ever think about. Nor should you. Its nights like this one, right here. Where I and those who work with me, have to pull an entire family from a mangled, crashed and partially burned car, only to place them in a black bag. Man, there ain't nothing as loud or as lonely sounding as the zipper on one of those damn things. Before you head out tonight, do us all a favor. Do yourself a favor, have a designated driver, call a cab, call a Uber or Lyft or some friend. Call someone hell, anyone for that matter. Just don't drink and drive.