Around the Corner

On a beautiful Saturday morning, on my way to the What Cheer Flea Market, I had a near-death experience. Rounding the S curve, just this side of Trenton, there was an oncoming pick-up truck in its proper lane. Suddenly, it shot over into my path! Everything was reaction. I pulled the steering wheel to the left and slammed on the brakes. Fortunately, the truck didn?t veer from its course, and there was no other oncoming traffic. I looked back. It was a fiftyish man in an Indiana-Jones-style hat turning off onto a gravel road. I don?t know if he didn?t see me, or misjudged my distance, if he was texting, or coming home from an all-night drunk. My hands shook on the steering wheel, and my foot and leg trembled on the gas pedal. A few feet more and it would have been a head-on collision and possible death for my companion, myself, and the other driver. Unexpected things happen so unexpectedly.

A little farther down the road, there was a solitary figure walking alongside the road. It was a tall young man, dressed in black. He waved as we passed, then set his skate board down in the middle of the paved road, and commenced skateboarding. Unreal. I wanted to shout out, still trembling from the near accident, that the highway wasn?t the safest place to be skateboarding. But where else can farm kids go?

Then Wayland came into sight. I had heard on the radio that Wayland had been hit by a tornado the night before, but had forgotten. From over a mile away, it was quite apparent that the destruction was severe. There were roofs torn off barns and houses, trees stripped of limbs, and whole sides of houses ripped off with bathrooms and bedrooms showing. There were people everywhere working with chain saws, and tractors, pulling debris off debris. Utility trucks were working frantically on downed power lines and snapped poles.

It looked as though the highway was blocked, but there was a single line of traffic being waved slowly through. I joined the long line of looky-loos, and rolled down the window in case I was asked for a driver?s license or ID. The painful look on the female officer?s face said it all.

There was a stench in the air, like a dead animal close by. I was to learn later that the stench was from dead turkeys being burned. A turkey barn had been destroyed by the twister, and hundreds of turkeys had either been injured or escaped. The school in Wayland had closed for the day, and school kids were helping round up turkeys. It was a contrasting sight: white turkeys being chased across black, muddy fields.

Fortunately, no one was killed in Wayland?another close call.

There are signs, and then there are signs. We live in a prosperous land, and it?s easy to take peace and safety for granted. One?s own destiny is pretty much controlled by self. The unemployed might disagree, but even then, there are choices.

Every once in a while, events happen: a near head-on collision, a tornado ripping through a town, or jetliner slicing through a tower, that remind us that we are inches away, a heartbeat away from what could be unexpected life-changing events.

Best have your ducks in a row, financially, physically, and spiritually?with the emphasis on spiritually. You never know what might be just around the corner.

Have a good story? Call Curt Swarm in Mt. Pleasant at 319-217-0526, email him at curtswarm@yahoo.com, or visit his website www.empty-nest-words-photos-and-frames.com