Gaegrand

Most of the time we don't realize what a second means to our lives. Tonight my life came within a second of being ruined. It would not have been my fault, but I almost killed someone.

We had a power outage this afternoon, a rather long one. It was also extensive as neither Janice nor Frankie had power either.

After it was over, my computer monitor was dead. Nothing I could do would give it any life at all. I had it connected to a surge protector with battery backup. When the power went out, it beeped and I turned off the computer the regular way. I don't know why the monitor was damaged.

I can't do without my computer so I left to go to Julia's to pick up her old computer monitor. It was dark.

I went past Janice's on Old Jackson Road. I don't usually travel much at night so I hadn't seen the beautiful Christmas lights. I enjoyed those I saw.

Then the narrow road becomes more agricultural and there are crop fields on both sides. I met a car and pulled over as far as I could on the right.

As soon as the car had passed by me, I caught just a glimpse of something on my side of the road. It was a black man in a black running suit walking with his back to me. The only thing that allowed me to see him was a thin green cording that ran down the sleeve of the jacket.

I reacted subconsciously and jerked the car to the center and missed him. So close. If the car had met me a second later, I would have hit him. If he had not had the touch of green on his clothing, I would have hit him.

I am never going down that road at night again.