The Dead Man In The Road

Last Friday, Phuong invited me to play Monopoly. It was 10pm when she called so I had to hurry and get ready-- I didn't want to keep them waiting. When I was getting ready, I thought about wearing my Hello Kitty army warmers, but ultimately, decided against it.

I was the last one there, but that's because unlike some moochers, I stopped at the grocery store first. I bought some Corona, and two kinds of Pepperidge Farms cookies (Brussels and Milano). Already there were Sarah and her new boyfriend, Alex, as well as Kevin and Tony (and Phuong and Mai, who live there.) I'd never played Monopoly with 7 people before. Having no brother or sisters, when I played Monopoly-- I played with my mom and dad. A game of Monopoly was a serious time commitment.

By my third roll of the dice, I got sent to jail with Danh. I only had the chance to buy three properties, all different colors. Adrian and Lisa, however, quickly had monopolies. Their properties soon had hotels. Danh was the first to go bankrupt, Tony the second, myself, the third. By 1pm the game was over and we set off to In-N-Out Burger. Adrian and Lisa simply had to have burgers from the place.

Phuong's parents were in Los Angeles, so she decided to borrow the mini-van, so we'd only need one car. Tony, however, had a problem. He was going to go home early, he said. Phuong was arguing with him saying he could at least come out with us first. At which point Sara cooed "Ohhh, Tony thinks he's gonna get some tonight. You should go, you might get lucky." At which point Danh started chiming in, and I stopped listening. I have a very vivid imagination and I had a boyfriend for 5 years, so I don't need these sorts of things spelled out for me. I'd rather be in denial.

Tony has been dating this girl, who I'll call Laura, for two weeks. She's 27 and recently immigrated from mainland China. He's 24. I haven't had to talk any crap about her, because Phuong does it for me. "You know, she probably plans on marrying you so she can be a citizen," is one of her favourites.

After much arguing, Phuong finally guilted Tony into going with us to In-n-out, and then Krispy Kreme donuts. (I was excited about having my very first Krispy Kreme donut, after hearing everyone but my dog sing their praises.) But, Tony was going to drive in his Mustang and leave from the restaurant. Kevin went with him (Phuong's idea: to ensure Tony actually went to In-n-Out.)

Phuong drove, Mai sat in the front passenger seat. I was in the very back, by myself. On the middle bench, right in front of me, were Lisa and Adrian. At that point, I didn't even want to go. Why did I go? I don't even eat hamburgers. So, isolated in the back seat, mt mood just got crappier and crappier. Our route was 101 north, but it was closed, all lanes, due to road construction. Our only option was to take 237 west, towards Mountain View. After a few miles thought, we suddenly came upon what appeared to be a normal traffic snarl, albeit at 1am. I figured it was due to 101 being closed. But it wasn't.

Except for me, all by lonesome, everyone else was emersed in a conversation in the particular strengths and weaknesses of each player on the Oakland A's. (baseball). Then, Phuong suddenly stomped on the brakes. I peaked out my window to see what was happening. We saw the red tail lights of stopped traffic in both lanes. At the slow speed of maybe 10 miles an hour, we passed a BMW on the left side of the van. The back of it was all punched in. It appeared to be not running. All of us, at the same time saw something else. About 20 feet in front of the BMW was a motorcycle. Upside down. There was glass and other debris all around it. The man riding the motorcycle came to rest about 10 feet in front of it.

If it wasn't for the slightly odd angle of his head, or the slowly spreading dark pool around his head, one might think he was just having a snooze. It had just happened. None of the cars had moved. Everything was just eerily still. No one had approached the man in the road. He just lied there. Fourteen year old Mai asked "Wait, is that guy dead?," the question we were all probably asking ourselves. With so many other cars stopped, we slowly drove away.

The In-N-Out brger was a block away from the deadly scene. After we ordered, we heard and saw an ambulance and police car making their way there. Mylinh, like me, doesn't eat burgers-- she got a grilled cheese. I just had fries. Mai didn't want anything. Lisa and Adrian both had double cheeseburgers, fries, and milkshakes. Apparently they were unperturbed. While they were eating, I was thinking that "he" was the first dead person I ever saw. And I felt incredibly guilty when I realised he was the second.

Seo Chung was in the 11th grade English and Photojournalism classes. When we watched "The Graduate," in English class, she thought it was the dumbest movie ever made. Every thing she owned had that hello kitty on it: paper, pencils, pens, erasers, shoes, even an umbrella. When we couldn't get into the dark room, she would write these long letters to her cousin in Seoul. Each word was in a different color. Her best friend was Maria, and she loved Hello Kitty. and on Martin Luther King Jr. Day of 1996, she died.

That was the first rainy day of the year. Here in San Jose, our rainy season is typically in February, March, and April. When it happened, I was at O'Connor hospital, where I volunteered as a candy striper. Seo's older sister had been driving the car on a doomed trip to West Valley shopping center. Seo and her two cousins were the passengers. She must have gone around the clover leaf from 87 to 280 just a little too fast, because she lost control. As if crashing her car into a concrete pillar wasn't bad enough, her little sister and cousin died in the collision. Apparently, Seo wasn't wearing her seat belt. She flew the windshield. She never had a chance. Seo hadn't struck me as some one who wouldn't wear her sealt belt. Maybe she was taking off her coat, and took off her seat belt for just a few seconds? I guess we'll never know.

I remember the irratation I felt the next day when our school principal made an announcement over the PA system. He butchered her name, calling her "sow" (like the pig) rather than the correct pronunciation "see-oh". In his announcement, he explained how the whole school would feel her loss, but couldn't even take the time to ask one of her teacher's how to say her name.

My friends and I went to the funeral. It was my first funeral for someone my own age. The beginning of the service was in English, and the rest was in Korean. Seo's sister sobbed her way through an apology letter in Korean. When we walked by the casket, I remember thinking she looked like she had alot of make up on. On one wrist was a Hello Kitty bracelet. In the other hand was a Hello Kitty purse. And tucked beside her was a beloved Hello Kitty stuffed animal. After we walked by the casket, we passed by her family and gave a little bow to each. I remember looking into her grandmother's eyes and seeing incredible sorrow. It was a very long walk.

I only ate half my fries. They weren't very crispy, or maybe I just lost my appetite.

In the parking lot, Tony gave me a hug before everyone else. In a few days, he would be on his way to Hawaii with his younger brother. He asked me if he could get me anything, and I told him postcards, for my collection. But he'll probably forget all about that.

Two days later, in the local section of the paper I found what I'd been looking for. I had been searching the paper for news of the accident. But as it turned out, a handful of people actually died on bay area freeways that weekend. Two other motor cyclists were killed, and one man who'd just been married apparently fell asleep behind the wheel and crashed into a tree.

The description of the accident was rather brief in an Ernest Hemingway/ journalistic sort of way. In two paragraphs, the paper explained that, on an early Saturday morning, an unidentified man was riding his motorcycle at a high rate of speed on 237. A slow moving BMW moved into the lane the motor cyclist was traveling in-- badly cutting him off.

I can't help but wonder what he was doing out so late. Was he like us, headed to In-N-Out burger? Was he going home to his wife? What was he thinking when he hit the back of that car? As the veteran of several high speed accidents, I can tell you that in my experience, time gets very wonky. It seems to both slow down and speed up at once.

Maybe he didn't have time to think.

Maybe he never even saw it coming.

(edit: ooh, I just re-read this and realised how many spelling and grammar slips there were.)

~Tragic