A Voice Out of Nowhere

It was a typical September afternoon in Louisiana. The heat was stifling-it was hard to cool off, even in our air-conditioned home. My toddlers were cranky, so I decided to put them in the car and head out for a long drive. The radio and motion usually soothed them to sleep.

After an hour of aimless driving, they were both napping. I found myself on a nearly deserted road by the railroad tracks. A short distance away were two hills. I drove over the first hill without incident. But as the second hill approached, I began to feel anxious. When I started up the incline, the radio stopped playing and I heard a man’s voice in my right ear, as if he were leaning over from the backseat. He asked me in a clear, firm voice, “What would you do if a car were coming up the other side of this hill in your lane?”

Without thinking, I swerved the car onto the shoulder. Slowly, we crept up the hill. When I reached the top I found myself face-to-face with an 18-wheeler truck-coming towards me in what should have been my lane. The driver was impatiently passing a car on the other side of him.

The radio started to play again, snapping me out of my shock. Terror gripped my entire body as I realized what could have happened. If I had stayed in my lane, we would have been struck head-on without ever seeing it coming.

Shaking, I descended the hill and pulled into a vacant parking lot. I loosened my grip on the steering wheel and spun around in my seat. There was no sign of the mysterious man who had just saved our lives, only my sleeping children. I will always be grateful to him-whoever he was.
-Paula Kennerson, New London, Iowa