Valkyre

Suburban vs. Escort

Okay, it's Monday morning. Which means this day already has two strikes against it.... I had dropped the girls off at school and I was making my way home. Traffic was heavy, as usual. I was aware of the large vehicle behind me. I thought it was a pick-up truck since all I could see was the front. It doesn't really make that much difference. We are approaching a major intersection. The light turns green and traffic starts slowly moving. For reasons I will never know, the car that is two cars ahead of me stops suddenly. So, the guy behind him stops hard too. And I stop. Knowing that I have a behemoth behind me, I leave a pretty large gap between me and the car in front, even though I still had to stop pretty hard. Then, I hear the unmistakable sound of screeching brakes. The behemoth behind me is sliding towards me. My whole rear view is filled with a large chrome grill. I though she had had stopped in time. But then, there was a terrible sound; she hit me. A loud thunk.

I remember vaguely throwing my car into park, pulling on the emergency brake and hitting the emergency blinkers. I got out slowly and walked towards the rear, expecting to see the rear end of my car shortened by about a foot. I look at, what I thought was a pick-up truck, only to see it was a Suburban. It was a mother and her kids. She told me that we should pull to the side. But, as I looked at the back of my car, I didn't see any damage. No scratches, no dents, nothing. "You know what?" I said, "I don't see any damage!" She still insisted that we pull off the road. I start everything back up and we pull into a parking lot. We both get out and look at our vehicles. Nothing. I didn't see anything. I looked at the rear bumper of the Escort from all angles and I didn't see a warp or anything. She asked me if I was okay. I was shook up, that's about it. The Escort is a tough little car. I'm all tensed up right now. Later in the afternoon, I will probably be aching all over the place. Argh! This day hasn't even started yet and I've already had trouble. Maybe I will go back to sleep!