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Second Chance
By
Paul R. Meredith
Chapter I
The night was closing in
fast on Ted Wilson as he started the drive from Chicago to return back home to Sullivan. He
had been in town for three days to help one of his consulting clients through a
large and complicated software change.
The rain first started out as light, intermittent
drizzle on the windshield of the car as he left the southern edge of the Windy City,
and then later changed to a steady drizzle of light rain. Ten miles down the
road it changed to heavier rain, but not so heavy it hampered his vision to any
large degree. But by the time he reached the northern edge of Kankakee this warm autumn evening, the rain
had slightly decreased in intensity once again and the fog was becoming
extremely heavy in spots.
Ted stopped in Kankakee
and called his wife on his cell phone. “Hi honey, I’m on my way home, but it’s
raining up here and it’s extremely foggy, so I pulled into a restaurant off the
highway so I could call you without crashing the car and let you know I’m
running a bit behind. I need to gas up and grab a cup of coffee and a sandwich
anyway.”
“What time do you think you will be home?” Marge
asked her husband.
“I’m guessing around nine to nine-thirty. I just
hope the fog lets up some. I can handle the drizzle of rain, but the fog makes
it doubly tough. Is it foggy down there?” he asked his wife.
Marge looked out the window. “No, there’s no fog
here, at least not yet, but it is drizzling some light rain. It must have just
started a few minutes ago because when I came in from work it was dry.”
“I was hoping I’d drive out of this pretty quick,
but I guess that won’t happen. I could be as late as ten if the fog doesn’t let
up south of here.”
“Just be careful driving, honey. I want you here
safely, so take your time and don’t worry about anything else. I’ll be here
waiting up for you. Should I have something prepared for you to eat?” she
asked.
“No, as I mentioned, I’m grabbing a quick bite and a
cup of black coffee here, so I’ll be good to go. See you later. Love you.”
“Love you too, sweetheart,” she said as she put the
receiver on the phone.
Thirty minutes later, Ted had finished eating his
hamburger and had gassed up the car. He was ready for the drive on down toward
home as he entered the ramp back out onto the interstate. The best speed he
could manage was about forty to forty-five miles per hour. It was very
difficult to see anything more than twenty-five or thirty feet ahead of the
car. He just kept his eyes glued on the taillights ahead of him. He drove south
for about fifty miles under these conditions, and then the fog seemed to
lighten up in spots and he was able to increase his speed to fifty-five. He
immediately decreased speed whenever he ran into a heavy patch of the fog, as
did the vehicle ahead of him. Soon the vehicle pulled off one of the off ramps
to exit. Then Ted drove as a single vehicle without any guide to follow,
slowing a bit from the speed he drove earlier. This allowed some of the big
rigs to pass him. It bothered him that they were passing him. How can they
see any better than I can? he wondered. This stuff is like pea soup.
No sooner had this thought left his mind than he hit
another really thick patch of fog, and suddenly he saw the bright red flashes
of automobile and truck stoplights and heard the crashing of metal. Ted jammed
the brakes as hard as he could while his car slid helplessly sideways on the
wet pavement toward a mass of smoking and torn metal and rubber. He thought he
heard screaming ahead.
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