S is for Close Calls

I'm doing the A-to-Z Blog Challenge.

Today is for S, and S is for STOP.

Despite the fact that "S" is one of the most commonly used letters in the alphabet, I had trouble deciding what to write about.

Then something happened on the way home from work and, after I calmed down, I realized the incident would be excellent blog fodder.

So here's the story...

I've decided to go out to my parents' house for an hour or two each night after work to help them get their belongings packed up.

After nearly 50 years on the same acre of land, it's possible to accumulate a lot of stuff.

A lot. A lot.

So I spent a couple of hours helping liquidate belongings in the garage before getting in my vehicle to go home. I live about 20 miles from them. It's a short drive through town and about 15 miles on the highway.

On the way into town, I stopped at Burger King so I wouldn't have to cook. I pulled up to the ordering speaker in the drive-thru, stepped on the brakes and my  SUV went PUUUfffuuuuh and my brake pedal went all the way to the floor.

AAAAnnnnddd I no longer had brakes.

What I did have is a Burger King employee repeatedly asking me, "Can I take your order?"

My husband, aka, brake-fixing
knight in shining armor. 

All I could do was sit there with my mouth open, thinking, "If I hadn't stopped at BK, I'd have lost my brakes at highway speed or worse...approaching the intersection with the highway."

And still the poor guy at the drive-thru kept repeating, "Can I take your order?"

His voice finally registered, so I turned to the speaker and said, "No thanks," (which I've secretly kind of always wanted to do to be mischievous, but not in this circumstance).

Then I backed up and parked so I could call my husband to rescue me.

He promptly arrived on the scene, diagnosed the ruptured brake line, and fixed the issue right there in the parking lot.

I eventually did go pick up our supper from BK, but not until I thanking God multiple times over. If I hadn't stopped to pick up supper, there's a really good chance I wouldn't have stopped when I reached the intersection with the highway.

That's a little too close for me.

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Kathryn Harris is an award-winning journalist, professional whiner and author of the contemporary not-nearly-enough-smut-for-today's-horndog-readers novel "The Long Road to Heaven."