My Death in Mill Valley
A vision has been granted to me of the day and the manner of my death.
I’ll die in Mill Valley, California. At the corner of Miller and Throckmorton. In front of Coppa Coffee.
I’ll be standing at the curb, waiting to cross over to the Depot Bookstore. I’ll look to make eye contact with the driver at the stop sign waiting to make a right turn onto Miller, in front of me.
She will be a slim young blonde in a silver Lexus SUV. She will look right at me. Reassured, I’ll begin to step off the curb. As I turn away from her, I’ll glimpse the beginning of an expression of annoyance on her face. Her mouth will begin to move. As I turn away, just as my right foot hits the street, I’ll have a microsecond of realization that she never really did see me. She was absorbed in her cell phone conversation.
I’ll begin to raise my left hand reflexively to signal her but it’ll be too late. She’ll wheel the SUV around the corner. My left foot will be caught under the right front wheel. I will go down. Then the right rear wheel will catch my legs and flip me over so that I watch the SUV pulling away.
Lying on the ground in the last moment of my life, I’ll look up and see her child, in the back seat, staring curiously at me. I will notice that the child has a bagel in his mouth. I will realize that I cannot tell if the child is male or female. A yellow Labrador retriever in the screened off rear section of the Lexus will bark furiously at me for a few seconds. The child will say something. I will see the driver waving, dismissing them both. She will drive on down Miller Avenue.
A crowd will gather. The fire truck will arrive quickly from the station around the corner. But it will too late. I will be dead, my blood running into a drain with a sign stenciled on it “NO DUMPING - FLOWS TO BAY”.
Half an hour later the driver will be arrested at the Whole Foods deli. Her husband will put up bail immediately. She will be released in time for her appointment with her personal trainer.
She will be charged with vehicular homicide. Her husband will hire a pit bull lawyer. She will state that she thought she had run over the curb. The charges will be reduced to a misdemeanor. She will spend a day at traffic school.
end
This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 15th, 2009 at 8:14 pm and is filed under This and That. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
December 4th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
Hi David,
I just watched “Shameless” and then did a search for you and…well…here I am. I read a bunch of your blog posts. I love your writing and storytelling. You have wonderful style and a witty sense of humor. Keep up the good work.
Thanks for being you.
March 11th, 2010 at 3:14 am
Valuable thoughts and advices. I read your topic with great interest.