“Can't wait to see you tomorrow!” Rachel said, giving me lilac. The flower smells sweet, like candy, or sugar, but you have to dig your nose deep to smell the goodness.
Ellie turns to look at me and gives me a hug. “Yeah, it's supposed to be warm tomorrow. Let's go swimming.”
“Sounds like a great beach day. Bye girls!” I said heading towards my car.
“Drive safe Bailee.” The girls said as they wave goodbye.
Two summers ago, Damion Hanke’s aunt contacted me about watching her two girls, Ellie and Rachel Ulvin for the summer every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. They live on Grant Street in Osage Minnesota.  Ellie is eleven years old. She's tall, blonde, and has freckles underneath her eyes. When it comes to Rachel, she is seven years old and much shorter than Ellie. She is blonde and has the body of a gymnast.
As I wave goodbye to the girls and exit their driveway, I roll my windows down, put my shades on, and listen to Florida Georgia Line on the radio.
The road I'm driving on is long and super narrow. I notice all the green around me because of all the trees and bushes on both sides of me. The ditches on both sides of the roads drop off about 3 inches and it scares me every time I drive down this road.
My hair blows in the wind, my shades are on, and Florida Georgia Line is cranked all the way up. A car turns down the road and starts coming towards me. I normally drive in the middle on this road because it's so narrow, but as I turn my wheel to the right to make room for the car, my tires get caught on the edge of the road. Suddenly my car is facing straight towards the ditch. “My parents are going to kill me,” is my first thought. I start to panic. The car starts to shake and I turn my wheel to the left to try to get back onto the road. I shut my eyes and continue to step on the gas pedal. I knew I was back on the road. I look around and my vision starts to shift. I’m now looking towards the ground. I see nothing but a black road. I hear a crack. My car had flipped. The radio stops working, my shades are off, the items in my car are flying around and my windshield is cracking. Shattering into pieces, there's glass flying everywhere. I shut my eyes again and pray. “Lord don't let me die, don't let me die.” I keep saying to myself. I feel myself going a different direction. I hear another loud bang as my car falls onto its side and hits the road. I’m now sliding across the road. My arm is burning, as I feel the pain of my arm sliding along the road with my car. I hear the sound of glass still breaking. The car comes to a complete stop. I open my eyes.
“What have I done,” I whisper to myself. My car is completely destroyed. All my windows are shattered. There's glass all over my car. My lights are flickering, and my radio is broken. Everything in my car is gone. My windsheild is cracked in a hundred different places and is caved in towards me. I stare at it. If one more piece breaks off, the whole windshield will fall right on me.
Tears run down my face. I know I need to get out of this car. My head is pounding. Blood starts running down my arm. I feel glass stabbing me in the most irritable places.
The car is still slowly rocking back and forth. I try to open my door so I can get on the road and look for help but it won’t budge. It’s stuck. I start kicking at it, punching it but nothing will work. I decide to crawl out of the passenger window.
I’m finally out. The pain in my arm gets worse. I can feel the glass. My head feels like a sack of potatoes. My right foot aches. I look at my car wreck. The car was wavering back and forth on the ditch and the road. It was barely holding up. There are black tire marks and glass everywhere. My purse is laying on the road along with all the things I had in it, scattered all over. My iphone is laying in the middle of the whole mess without a single scratch on it. It's an image I will never forget.
I’m wearing a coral strapless dress. Certainly not the outfit I would recommend wearing if you get in a car crash. But I couldn't help it. There is blood splattered all over it.
I start walking towards the middle of the road. I notice a car. The car stops beside me and a lady gets out. She was already on the phone with 911.
“Please help me.” I asked her.
“Of course sweetheart, I'm here.” She responded opening her arms to hug me.
I can tell she is scared too. She gets off the phone with 911 and starts to ask me questions about what happened and makes sure I’m okay. I  continue to cry and asked for my mom.
“What's your mom’s number sweetheart?”
“218-255-3529”
The pain in my arm is getting worse. I felt each imperfectly edged piece of glass. She tells me we have to wait for the ambulance to get here. In the meantime, she asks me more questions about what happened. I don’t want to talk much and the pain in my arm is hurting so bad, I can’t stop crying. The lady looks familiar.
“What's your name?” I asked her.
“My name is LeeAnn Dirks”
“Oh you're David Dirks’ mom.”
The sirens start getting louder and the ambulance appears down the road.

I’m sitting on the back of the ambulance. My arm still dripping blood, the EMT is carefully wrapping my arm so the blood won’t continue to run down my arm. I look up and notice my mom. She's wearing her maroon shirt, blonde hair pulled back into a bun and she’s moving quite fast. I spot tears running down her watery blue eyes. As she reaches out her hand towards me, I grab it. I cling on tight to her cold but soft hands. We’re both crying. I'm so glad she's here. She bends down and gives me a huge bear hug. I smell the sweet scent of her perfume.
The police officer walks over to me. “How did you survive that crash? You should be dead, and how exactly did you get out of the car?”
“I jumped out the passenger window.”
“Wow. Luckily you had your seatbelt on. That's what kept you alive. Also, if you would of opened your drivers door that car would have fallen on you and you would be dead. You are one lucky girl.”
Suddenly I felt a hand on my back, I look up and it was my dad. He is crying and is giving me the biggest hug. I feel complete now that both of my parents are here. Both of them will not let go of me.
“Ma’am would you like your daughter to ride in the ambulance to the hospital or would you like to take her yourself?”
I will take my daughter to the hospital, thank you.” My mother responds as she helps me off the back of the ambulance.
I thank everyone and give LeeAnn Dirks a big hug.
“Get better sweetheart, I'm glad I could be here to help.”
I take one last look at my car and the mess I made. Then start heading towards my mom’s car. Tears still roll down my cheek and the pain in my arm is not getting any better. I get in the car and my three siblings are bawling their little eyes out. They are scared and don’t  know what exactly was going on. My mom reassures them that I’m going to be okay and I give them all kisses.

We arrive at the hospital and the bandage the EMT wrapped me with was covered in blood. My dad stayed behind with my siblings and my mom hurried to the front desk to get me to the emergency room as soon as possible. A nurse arrives through the door with a wheelchair and tells me to take a seat. She wraps me with warm blankets and takes me back to one of the emergency rooms and helps me onto the bed.

Two hours later..
I’m still sitting on the bed in the emergency room, waiting for the doctor to arrive. There is a knock on the door, but it’s not the doctor. Both of my uncles that live in Pequot Lakes are here. I’m so happy to see them and thankful they drove to come check on me. The pain in my arm isn't helping this long wait and I just want the glass out already. While I was waiting for the doctor, I talk with my uncles and tell them what happened. Fifteen minutes later there is another knock on the door and doctor walks in.
She removes my bloody bandage and starts to take a look at it.
“Wow the glass got you pretty good, this might take a while.” The doctor says as she gets out her tools.
It takes the doctor more than two hours to get every piece of glass out my left arm. I had twenty pieces of small glass on the face of my upper shoulder and fifteen pieces of glass in my inner elbow and below my elbow. After she got every piece of glass out she began to stitch me up.
“All right you're all good to go. We’ll keep those stitches in for about a week and then we'll see how it looks. Get some rest dear.”
“Thank you.” I say as my mom helps me off the bed and we make our way out.
It’s an experience I will never forget. My life flashed before my eyes and the image of death wouldn't escape my head. I was scared and couldn't stop thinking about what I did. The feeling of panic and over correcting myself and not knowing what to do.