November 25th, 2025
“Can we go to the playground?”
Asher asked me that in the car after I picked him up from school. I was tired, but I told him, “Yeah, sure. Which one?”
“Kayla’s Place.”
Asher likes going to Kayla’s Place. It’s a nice playground and he is finally big enough to navigate the monkey bars on his own.
I drove on to the freeway exit to make a right turn. There was a white car in front of me. The driver made a move to turn right into the street. After they did that, I pulled up and glanced left to look for oncoming traffic. I saw none, so I accelerated, turned right, and …
Boom!
The driver of the white car had gone forward maybe ten or fifteen feet and then stopped to check traffic again. I didn’t realize that until I hit the rear of the vehicle.
Asher understandably freaked out.
“Grandpa! Did we hit something?! You got to get out and check if the car is okay!”
I put on the four-way flashers and pulled over to the side of the road. The car ahead of me did the same. I got out.
I was rattled. I hadn’t been in accident in years. The lady from the other car came out too. None of us were hurt. She asked me,
Do you have insurance?”
“Yeah.”
She was in a hurry. She needed to make some deliveries. The woman took pictures of my car and her own. I only have an ancient flip phone, so I didn’t even try to take photos. She had a dent in the back of her car. She looked at my ride and said,
“My car ain’t looking as bad as yours. You got fluid leaking all over the place.”
She was right. There was blue liquid pissing out of the bottom of the right front of my car. That worried me. I figured that it was window washer fluid, but I wasn’t sure.
We exchanged information. I got her license plate number, and her name and phone number. She got all that from me and my insurance information. I never got hers. Maybe she doesn’t have any. It doesn’t matter much. I was at fault regardless.
I got back into my RAV4 with Asher. The lady drove away. I tried to slow down my breathing and calm myself.
Asher asked me from the back seat,
“So, are you still taking me to Kayla’s Place?”
I sighed.
“Yeah.”
Frank is Emptiness 