I never thought it would happen to me.  I mean, I thought I was invincible.

I couldn't have been more wrong if it had came and slapped me right in the mouth.

I knew I shouldn't have been driving when I was severely lacking in sleep.  I had been up for the past day, day and a half, cramming for midterm exams, when I decided to go to my best friend's house.  I borrowed my dad's Ford F-150 truck.  Did okay, but then, less than 500' from my driveway, I turned the corner too sharply, and into the path of an oncoming semi.

Whammo!  First brights, instant, bone-jarring pain, and then ... nothing.

When I woke up next, I was startled to find myself lying on a table in some emergency room, people bending over me, shouting, talking, and asking me an endless stream of questions.  They were poking me, sticking needles into me.  I felt fine from the waist up; below that ... it was like someone had cut my body directly in half.

I felt nothing.  I knew something was terribly wrong.  I started sobbing, "Oh, God, Oh, God!"  I knew I was done for.  Dad was gonna kill me for borrowing his truck without his permission.  That was all I could think about.

Nothing worried me more than the lack of feeling below my waist.  I had apparently injured my back somehow, but as to how  severely: that was out of the question for now.  What really mattered was this: I couldn't feel anything below my belly button.

It was scary.  It was mindnumbing.  It was altogether terrifying.

Suddenly the images of wheelchairs and crutches loomed in my vision.  I barely heard one of the nurses utter the word: "Surgery", before I mercifully passed out.

*End of part one.*