A sense of fear washed over my body like a tidal wave rolling into a beach on a hot, summer day. Was my dad okay? What happened to him in his car accident? Although I should not have been thinking those horrible thoughts, fear overtook my brain and made me assume the worse result possible.

The day was a cold and wintery in Lisbon, Iowa. As I woke up, the day started off as normal as could be; I woke up, put on my clothes, ate breakfast, and hopped on the school bus to go to school. Once I arrived, I did my usual routine which consisted of putting my book bag in my locker and then making my way to my classroom. As the day progressed and it was almost time to return home, my teacher, Mrs. Mattison, received a phone call. She answered the phone and instantly, her face turned as white as a ghost and a look of dread overcame her face. Mrs. Mattison called me over to her desk and said, “Mallory, your dad has been in a very bad car accident on his way home from work. After school, your grandma will be picking you up and you are going to stay the night at her house. I’m so sorry.” As I slowly walked back to my desk with a blank stare on my face, thousands of thoughts raced through the back of my mind.

I could not get the idea of my dad getting in a car accident out of my head and I assumed the worst. Was he okay? What happened to him? Is he going to die? As I was thinking about these concepts, I began to sob and my classmates looked at me with a look of misery. Mrs. Mattison helped me pack up my book bag and we walked down to the office together. I waited patiently on the cold, brown chairs in the office for my grandparents to arrive. When they finally arrived, I loaded up my belongings into their red car. The drive from Lisbon to Cedar Rapids could not have taken any longer. All I wanted was to be curled up on the couch at my grandparents’ cozy house.

Eventually, my grandparents and I made it to their house and my mom was waiting for me in the driveway with open arms. She gave me a huge hug and told me my dad was going to be alright. After I was settled in and stopped crying, my mom told me the story of how my dad was in an accident. As she began to tell her story, I was very fearful of what happened to my dad. While my dad was on his way home from work, the car approaching him in the opposite lane hit a patch of black ice and lost control of his vehicle and began to swerve all over the road. The car turned completely sideways and crossed into my dad’s lane and my dad could not slow down. He ended up hitting the car head on. The ambulance was called immediately; however, they could not make it to the scene because of the road conditions so a helicopter was called in. The helicopter transported my dad to a hospital in Iowa City. As he was being examined, the doctors determined that my dad had broken his leg, arm, several ribs, and would need stitches to repair the wound on his forehead. My father was lucky to only have this many injuries, considering the condition he was in.
As a child, fear tends to control a person’s thoughts and emotions in desperate situations. When my dad was in his car accident, fear dominated my feelings and I immediately assumed the worse outcome. Although the result could have been worse, I thought about the worst possible conclusions even though my dad was just fine.