Storymania - Life's A Ditch by Emily S

Life's A Ditch
Emily S

Life’s A Ditch!

Last summer I had a very memorable learning experience. I learned that when Mom says no, she means no! Unfortunately, I had to learn the hard way. Of course, I tried to lie my way out of the situation, which taught me another valuable lesson--Never lie to your parents!

It started off as a normal summer day. It was the middle of June, and it was Thursday. I woke up at 8:30 that morning and was rushing around the house getting ready to take my mother to work in Shelbyville. We waded our way out to the red-orange 1990 Chevy Cavalier at about 9:30. Everything was under water! It had done nothing but rain for most of two days, so our entire yard was flooded. When we drove by Ed’s Garage, we noticed that there were cars almost completely drowned in the rain. Of course, I didn’t think much of that, so we drove on towards Shelbyville.

As we drove down the highway near Robinson Creek Bottom, I got an idea! I told Mom that if the water level went down, my friend Mickey and I might go down to the Cowden Covered Bridge. Of course, Mom said “NO!” She said that the water level would definitely be too high down there. There would be roads under water, and we wouldn’t be able to get to the bridge. I was disappointed, although I didn’t really believe her. My mom has a habit of overreacting.

After dropping Mom off at Billy Lee’s Video and cashing my paycheck, I headed back home towards Tower Hill. I noticed that Robinson Creek Bottom was very flooded. I’d seen it flooded before, but this was different. The road down in the bottom was completely under water. The fields looked like a lake. That water had to have been several feet deep. That should have been my hint to go home and stay home! The flooded fields only made me even more curious about what things would look like at the bridge.

When I went home, I got on the phone and called my friend Mickey. We decided to go out to the Cowden Covered Bridge. Yes, that was a very big mistake!! We were listening to the radio, singing along, and talking about Mickey’s cousin Brian (who was my favorite conversational topic at the time). I wasn’t sure how to get to the bridge, so when we got in the area, Mickey had to give me directions. The winding gravel road (it was a hilly area, by the way) that led directly to the bridge was partly underwater. We drove on, until we came to a spot on the road that was completely under water. I completely ignored every safety precaution I had learned in Driver’s Education. I also ignored the speech my mother had given me that morning, about driving in rainy weather!

We were stopped in front of the enormous puddle of muddy rainwater there on the road. Mickey asked me how deep I thought it was. “I don’t know.” I replied. Soon enough, we found out that it was way too deep. Slowly, I let off the brake, and the car crept forward. We could hear the water splashing up around the car. Halfway through, I stopped the car. I asked Mickey if she thought we should go on. She thought it was too deep, but I was afraid of backing up. So I let off the brake, and forward we went, but not for very long! “Watch the ditch!” I remember Mickey yelling, jumping in her seat. OH NO! it was too late! The car was getting sucked into the ditch on the right side of the road. Water was creeping in slowly. Stupidly, I pushed on the gas, trying to get out of the ditch. Of course, that only made the car sink faster! Water started to rush in, so we both climbed out of the driver side door. When we got out, the car was almost completely on it’s side! A million thoughts were running through our heads. How much trouble would I be in if mom found out? I didn’t know, and I didn’t want to find out.

The main thing at that moment was getting the car out off the ditch. I waded my way to the back of the car. I had planned to stand in the ditch and push the car back up on the road. Well, so much for that plan! The ditch was much deeper than I thought! I slipped, and ended up in water up to my belly button. I also broke my favorite pair of sandals! Soaking wet, I pushed on the car, but even the adrenaline pumping through me wasn’t enough for me to move it. I got out of the ditch and gave Mickey my cell phone to call her father.

Mickey’s dad was worried about getting the car out of the ditch so we could get home, but there was no way he could get to us--His wife had their van at work. Mickey gave me the phone back and asked if I were going to call my mom, but there was no way in HECK I was going to do that unless I absolutely had to. So what were our options? We had to find someone to pull us out.

So we walked back up the road, probably a mile and a half. Luckily, a handicapped couple drove down the road and saw us. He listened to our story, and laughed at us. He asked who our parents were, and who my driver’s education teacher was. “Didn’t he teach you how to back up?” He asked me, laughing at our unfortunate situation. We talked to the couple for about five minutes when another man drove down the road and stopped. The couple knew the man, which was good news to Mickey and me. Fortunately, the man had a tractor just down the road. Mickey and I got into the vehicle with the older couple and followed the man to his tractor. The old man told us we probably had some fish in our car. He explained how he and his son go fishing in the ditches when it rains hard, and he even showed us a picture of a huge fish his son caught in the ditch! I hoped there were no fish in my car! When we got to the man’s tractor, Mickey got out of the car and rode on the John Deere with the man.

We got to my car, which was almost totally in the ditch. The handicapped man continually laughed at the entire situation. I didn’t appreciate being made fun of, but I was glad to get some help. We watched anxiously and nervously as the man hooked my car to the tractor. Easily, he pulled the car completely clear of the water and onto the (semi) dry road. He opened all four car doors, and water rushed out.

The handicapped man teased me about having to pay the man for pulling my car out of the water. I wasn’t worried about paying the guy. I’d just gotten paid that morning, I was willing to pay just about anything, although thankfully, he didn’t charge us a dime.

We thanked everyone graciously and got in the car. Thank goodness, the car started!

The inside of the car was completely soaked. The seats were wet, and the floorboards held gallons of water. The break and gas pedals both were under water. How in the world were we going to get all of the water out of the car? We didn’t see any fish yet, which was a good thing, but the car still stunk badly.

We started back up the gravel road, the same way we had come. We observed that when the car turned, the water sloshed around. We decided that when we turned, we would open the car door so some of the water would go out. This plan worked well, and we got quite a bit of water out of the front of the car.

I took one turn pretty hard, and Mickey’s door was open. She almost flew out of the car! She grabbed my steering wheel to keep from falling out, which made me lose control of the car! The car went nose first into another ditch. Fortunately, the ditch wasn’t deep, and it wasn’t full of water, so I easily backed out of it. We were much more careful about opening the doors while turning from that moment on. When we got into Cowden, we stopped at a gas station. Soaking wet, I walked in to purchase some cups to fish more water out of the car.

When we got back to Tower Hill, we went to Mickey’s house to let her family know we were all right. Her sister Amy went with us down to Brian’s house. When Brian answered the door, I asked him if he wanted to go fishing with us! He laughed and told me he didn’t like fishing very much. His little sister Allysha wanted to go fishing though! That’s when I told them to come look at my car! When he saw the car, a few profane words came out of his mouth. I explained the whole story and asked him kindly if he would let me use his shop vac.

Brian agreed, but I didn’t have to do any of the work! He vacuumed the car out for me! He dumped the vacuum several times. There had to have been about seven gallons of water in my car! The seats were still soaked, though! Brian climbed under the car and pulled out some of the grass that was stuck underneath. He pulled out quite a bit of grass and weeds, as well as a crawdad! I was disgusted, but Allysha found it very amusing.

It was still very obvious that the car had gone through the ditch, so I had to disguise my mess! I took Mickey and Amy home so Mickey could change clothes, and then I went home to change clothes. I also grabbed some towels to put on the seats of my car. When I was done changing, I went back to pick up Mickey and Amy, and we went to Brian’s to get him and his sister. Everyone was crowded in the backseat, and the wetness was soaking through the towels, but somehow we made it to the Pana Wal-Mart.

At Wal-Mart, I bought an air freshener, seat covers, and stuff to get the water out of my gas tank. After the Wal-Mart trip, we went to the car wash. Brian used the vacuum at the car wash to soak up more water. We put the seat covers on and put up the air freshener, then actually took the car through the car wash. The car looked better, but it was still a mess. I had to go to work, so I gave up and went back to Tower Hill.

When I got to work, Mom asked me how I spent my day. Of course, I lied to her! I told her Mickey and I went cruising, and just hung out at her house. She also asked me why the car was so wet inside! Well, I actually had a problem with the floorboards of the passenger side being wet before it went through the ditch. I had a problem with my air conditioner which caused condensation, and I used that as an excuse. She pretended to believe me, but I’m not sure she really did.

When I got home from work, I found out that Brian had told my parents what really happened! They were VERY upset-and especially upset about my lying to them! I was grounded for a week, and they were really letting me off easy! The car sat in the driveway for the week I was grounded. The car doors were left open as much as possible so the stink could air out. Mom and Dad bought a new car, and they made me drive the old Cavalier.

This experience has definitely taught me three lessons. First, when Mom says “no,” she means no! Second, never lie to your parents! And third, I learned that “Life’s A Ditch!”