The Ride, the Rose, and the Resurrection

Closing the hangar door on another beautiful morning of flying low and slow across the flat lands of Michigan’s thumb, I turned to Carole and suggested that it was just too beautiful a day to be spent working up a sweat digging in the backyard. She agreed. Driving home from the airport Carole suggested we pull out the Harley and extend the morning’s entertainment cruising around the countryside. The curves and hills on the back roads between Caro and Marlette make for a great ride when the weather is cooperating. Wildlife, green scenery and the smell of nature have a dimension all their own when nothing separates them from our human senses. Just ahead from the entrance to a trailer park on the northern outskirts of town a car came tearing out and onto the highway. “What an idiot!” I thought to myself. “If we had been at that spot ten seconds sooner he would have run over us.” The driver recklessly sped away, his car weaving erratically between the lines. As we approached the intersection of M-53 and French Line Road we caught up with the car. The driver had stopped and pulled off the road to the right of the fog line. “What is this guy doing! Talking on the cell phone? Making a turn?” Who knew! At least he would be behind us once we made it past him through the intersection in another . . . Jeremy had just returned home to Dumfries with his wife and daughter after a week long vacation at Virginia Beach. It was about two o’clock in the afternoon. Their belongings had all been hauled from the car and piled on the floor in the middle of the living room. Jer was standing in the kitchen taking a short break when the phone rang. It was his brother-in-law, Rodney. “You need to come home, Jer” Rodney said. “There’s been an accident.” Jeremy went numb. Nicole and Mark’s vehicles passed each other on the road in front of the entrance to the mobile home park where that car had come tearing out and onto the highway just seconds before we crossed that stretch of pavement on the motorcycle. In that split second as their vehicles zipped by each other going in opposite directions Nicole and Mark’s eyes met. The look of fear on Mark’s face sent a chill down Nicole’s spine. She knew something was wrong. “This isn’t going to be good”, Nicole mumbled to herself. Nicole rolled the Rescue rig to a stop along side the Lapeer EMS unit, jumped out, and grabbed her gear. Moving as quickly as possible she pulled the Bunkers over her tender, sunburned legs. Dressed and ready she rounded the back of the Lapeer EMS unit and stopped dead in her tracks, her worst fears unfolding before her eyes. Panic began to well up from within as she quickly absorbed the scene.