Lemme Tell You a Story About (Myself and) a Man Named Jedd

I'm stuck in a horrifically boring meeting this afternoon and I refuse to pay attention.  Ya'll get the benefit (if you can really even call it that) of a small chapter out of my past.

I've known Jedd my entire life.  We were born in the same town.  Went to the same schools and to the same church.  We even have the same last name (but aren't related, as far as we know).  Jedd was in my wedding and I in his(even though his was at the county courthouse).  We were always pretty good friends, but didn't become great friends until college. 

Jedd is, and always has been, a redneck.  A country bumpkin.  A hillbilly.  If you haven't been around him much, you couldn't understand a word he says.  He makes Boomhower (from King of the Hill) sound like royal socialite from England.  In college he and I did more huntin, muddin, and drinkin than we did studyin.  There is no way I can fully describe his backwoods redneckishness.  Best way is to say he makes Noopy come across as being sane and civilized.

But Jedd is (and was) smart.  Not like made A's and B's and a 26 on the ACT smart.  But, more along the lines of this kind of smart- He is the head of IT and Wireless security for NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL.  It still blows me away to talk to him on the phone and to hear the southern drawl and yet have an amazingly intellectual conversation.

Even more importantly than that, though, Jedd is a good person.

After finishing undergrad, Jedd went straight to work in NASA's IT department in Huntsville.  I bounced around from place to place perpetually getting burned out in the social service field.  I eventually ended up in Cullman, AL, half an hour or so South of Jedd.  We reconnected and hung out all the time.  He introduced me to the Xbox.  If nothing else, he is a good man for having done that.

After several months of living a few miles apart and continually receiving crap from both of our parents for not coming home to visit, we decided to head back to good ole Henderson, TN to visit our families and long lost peeps.  We spent a long weekend there.  Had a great time and saw lots of folks we grew up with that neither of us had seen in quite a while. 

We headed back home Sunday after church so we could get back in time to get a few hours of gaming in before having to go back to work on Monday.  We were driving my freshly detailed (and slightly pimped out) Mustang.  As was usually the case then, every other red light was a drag race and we would occasionally get passed by some idiot trying to prove a point by blowing by us as I had the cruise set at 60.  For whatever reason, the day was abnormally worse as far as both the number of idiots on the road as well as the number of rednecks wanting to race. 

After a couple of hours on the road we decided to stop in the small town of Moulton, AL.  We weren't far from home, but we both had to pee like nobody's business and we both needed to restock on the dip.  As we were walking out of the gas station, a guy pulls in driving a ridiculously overpimped white trash (sorry Brains, that's what we call 'em here) Camaro.  He is followed by an equally ridiculous 4x4 Silverado.  They have a quick "who can be the bigger idiot" contest redlining the engine while in nuetral and then both run into the gas station while leaving their vehicles running.  I can not explain to you how hard it was not to do something to one or both of those vehicles, but we refrained. 

So we get back on the road to head on home.  We get a few miles down the road and I notice the Camaro very quickly gaining on us.  "Of course." I think to myself.  I go ahead and slow down to 50 knowing he is inevitably going to be retarded and blow by me, whether the road is clear or not, so I just decide to make it easier and safer for him, us, and everyone on the road.  Sure enough, he comes up behind us, slows down enough just to hesitate behind us and rev his engine to make sure we know he is there, and then proceeds fly around us sticking the left rear tire slightly off the road, fishtailing for a good 5 seconds, and then flying off into the horizon.

Jedd and I had become so transfixed by this moron's attempt to bring about his (and anyone else on the road's) early demise, we had not even noticed the monster truck porportioned Silverado quickly approaching us from the rear.  He too was approaching quickly and I again slowed to 50 to do my best to put him in the best position to not kill himself or anyone else.  As he came in behind us we crossed in to a no passing zone as we were approaching an intersection with a small county road.  I gave the driver of the truck some credit as he started to pull out around us, but quickly tucked back in on our tail.  But my initial assessment of this young man's intelligence was quickly proven incorrect as within a few seconds of deciding not to roll on by us, he changed his mind.  That decision changed many many lives. 

As the Silverado pokes it's nose around us I look ahead and absolutely freak out.  A small Nissan pickup has pulled to the intersection of the crossing road.  Apparently he does not see us coming.  Oh no! He definitely does not see us coming!  The little Nissan pulls out and I immediately lock up the brakes.  There is no way I'm getting stopped in time.  It just ain't gonna happen.  So I hit the ditch.  Thankfully it is a shallow and wide ditch.  But it is still a ditch.  And it still ends at the cross road.  Dadgummit.  I veer to the right as much as I can without hitting the trees, stay on the brakes as much as I can without locking them up, and hold my breath as we hit the intersection.  The air time was minimal as I had gotten us slowed to about 25, but the scary part was initially hitting that incline up to the road without knowing what was on the other side.  Thankfully, it was nothing but an empty parking lot for a little country gas station.  We landed, came to a stop, and finally started to breathe again.

It is rather amazing that I didn't run us into a tree or who knows what else as we rolled through that ditch.  I really wasn't watching anything in or near us in that ditch.  That's because I could not take my eyes off the horror that was unfolding on the road.  Neither one saw the other.  The Nissan rolled on out into the intersection.  The Silverado didn't hit his brakes at all.  Or at least if he did, it didn't make a noticeable difference in his speed.  There are no real adjectives out there to describe what we saw and heard.  Gruesome.  Heart-stopping.  Deafening.  The midpoint of the Silverado's grill hit square with the little Nissan's driver side door.  The Nissan skidded sideways with the Silverado pushing it like a snow plow for a good ten feet.  The Nissan then rolled on to it's side and then upside down.  As the Nissan was flipping the Silverado pulled up, on top of, and then completely over the Nissan.  As the Silverado mowed over the top of the Nissan it continued it's flip eventually ending up on it's now flat tires.  It probably only lasted 10 seconds or so.  Metal crunching, glass breaking, tires squeeling.  It is amazing how the mind slows down your perception of events like this so you are able to process it as it is happening.

Everything is silent.  A good 30 seconds of silence.  And then movement.  Not in either of the trucks.  It is Jedd.  He has unbuckled and getting out of the car and yelling at me to come on.  Huh?  What?  Oh crap!  We gotta go help. 

Jedd beats me to the mangled mess of metal by two or three steps.  We went to the Nissan first.  There was blood everywhere.  It was an older couple and neither were conscious.  For whatever reason we tried to open the driver side door first.  I guess because it was the side we got to first.  Talk about futile.  That door would have been easier to open if it were welded shut.  As we run around to the other side an older fella comes out of the gas station and lets us know he has called 911 and that he is going to get a fire extinguisher.  Why is he going to get  fire extinguisher?  With our focus solely on figuring out how to help this couple, we had not even realized that the front of the Nissan was on fire.  This is bad.  This is very very bad.  No more time to think.  We just started moving.  Somehow (adrenaline is an amazing hormone) we managed to rip the passenger side door off the Nissan.  Notice I said off.  Not open.  We literally separated the door from the cab.  As we do this the older lady comes to.  She is screaming.  Not yelling.  Screaming.  "Help me Jesus!"  Over and over.  I get her unbuckled and grab her by her shoulders as Jedd grabs her feet.  We carry her to the parking lot across the road and lay her down.  Jedd tells her we are going to get her husband and that an ambulance will be here shortly.  "Help me Jesus!" was her reply. 

We turn to run back to the Nissan only to see the entire front end engulfed in flames.  Jedd and I look at each other.  We could both see the other debating what to do.  After only a few seconds Jedds says to me, "Ready to lay down your life for another?"  He turns and runs to the Nissan.  I stand there in disbelief for a second or two, then run to help.  I don't really remember how we got him out of that cab.  The top of it was caved in and his left foot was stuck in the mangled metal.  I do remember it was hot.  Unbearably hot.  But, we did get him out.  As we laid him down next to his wife, we look over at the Silverado.  Another couple of guys had stopped and were pulling the driver out.  He was conscious, but bloodied as well.  As I turn back to check on the older couple I am literally knocked to the ground.  Dazed, I get to my knees and quickly realize I can hear nothing but ringing.  Jedd is laying across the older couple in what I later found out was an attempt to protect them.  He gets up.  Deaf and dazed like myself, we turn to look at the wreck.  The gas tank.  Not a full 30 seconds after we pulled this gentleman from that truck had it exploded into a ball of flames.  God certainly had been watching over us.

As our hearing starts to come back we hear the very faint wail of sirens.  Finally.  An ambulance.  We turn our attention back to the older couple.  The woman has apparently blacked out.  Either that or she had decided to say her prayers silently at this point.  The man was still unconscious.  Too unconscious.  Jedd had already noticed and was kneeling down next to him.  Uh oh.  Not breathing.  No pulse.  We immediately started CPR.  Me doing chest compressions.  Jedd doing rescue breathing.  For whatever weird reason, it seemed like time had sped up.  Instead of things moving in slow motion, as they had been, time was moving too fast.  How long ago did he stop breathing?  Why is the ambulance taking so long?  How have we been doing CPR for 5 minutes already?

The ambulance finally arrives and the paramedics take over.  They load the man into the first ambulance and the woman into a second one.  The third ambulance takes the driver of the Silverado off and the firefighters put out the blaze.  A fourth ambulance treats Jedd and I for minor burns and smoke inhalation.  We give our statement to the troopers and head on our way.

I dropped Jedd off at his house and headed on home.  We didn't really talk much about what happened that day for several months.  The old man pulled through eventually.  He was in the hospital for several months.  The old woman was in and out of the hospital for several months due to having to have multiple surgeries.  They called both Jedd and I a few months later and took us both out to dinner.  They were very kind and gracious, and of course, repeatedly thanked us. 

Neither Jedd nor I really gave any thought to it.  We just kind of reacted to the situation.  But I have to say, I'm not sure I would have run back to that burning truck if Jedd hadn't been there. 

Good people like that are hard to find now days, and that's a real shame.