The Ride Home

For real, ask me a question people! Thank to Pserendipity for her queries. I need some more though. I can't make a post out of 3 questions. Well, I can, but I don't want to. Audience participation please. This is your chance to control what I write about. Ask me some off the wall mess. Ask me something that you been thinking, but are not sure about. Ask me anything. Okay, I'm done begging now.

On to today's post. I intended to post this last week when I was talking about my ex's but I somehow got tired of writing about them.

The Ride Home

Dateline: Sometime in 1996 - Savannah, Georgia

As was customary, this day I met Lisa at the Biology building. She was pre med, I was an English major. We had coordinated our schedules so that our classes coincided with each other. I parked my 1987 VW Fox, you know the one with the fresh Cerulean Blue paint job and the airbrushed license tag that said Rashan X and was adorned with a tiger, Savannah State's mascot, across from the library. I walked in the building to find Lisa sitting in the lobby.

"You ready to go?"

She didn't say anything, just nodded and stood up. I grabbed her books and we walked towards the exit. I opened her the passenger side door, put her books in the back seat and then she sat down. Closing the door after her, I scampered around to the driver's side, got in and turned the car on. Loud hip hop blared from the 6 x 9 speakers that my homeboy Ashley had just recently installed for me. I quickly lowered the volume, realizing that I had forgotten to remove the detachable face for the cd player.

"My bad."

Lisa used to get on me about blasting my music in front of the biology building. Something about not wanting her professors to hear my profanity laced booming. She didn't say anything this time, so I considered myself lucky. I changed the CD to something that we both liked, I wanna say it was Monifah's Mood...Moments album, but I can't quite remember. I depressed the clutch, put the car in gear and rode around the campus towards the Victory Street exit. We usually stopped over at her cousin's house right outside the campus for a while before going home, so I drove in that direction.

"I'm not feeling too good. Can you just take me home?"

Not a problem. I didn't want to go over there anyway. They were okay, but I always felt a little anti social over there. I usually just wound up watching Jenny Jones or Tempestt Bledsoe's talk show while the family did whatever they did. I rode back around the campus, exiting at the Skidaway entrance.

"Hey, Lisa. You need something to drink or something?"

She shook her head, still not very talkative. Really, I wanted to stop and get a Mystic or one of them Lifesaver drinks, but I could tell that I should probably get her home. The music played softly in the background as I made the right turn onto DeRenne Ave. We rode without talking, which was rare, but had been known to happen from time to time. We stopped at a red light at DeRenne and Waters.

"How did you do on that test?"

Lisa didn't respond. I scanned my memory banks to see what I had done wrong. I don't think she knew about my trip to the ghetto ass strip club (please someone remind me to write about Lady Lou's and BoMays - hilarious stories in those clubs) the other night. Kareem and Tori weren't around so they couldn't have gotten on her nerves. Matter of fact, we rarely if ever argued about anything, so I wasn't sure what I had done to rate a silent treatment. Was she really mad about me blasting my music? Nah, she's not that type. But what's up? The light turned green and I inched forward slightly when I heard her say something.

"What'd you say?"

Again, Lisa didn't respond. I figured she was deep in thought and decided not to push the issue. I hit another red light right in front of Candler Hospital. It took an eternity for the light to change. It was what passes for rush hour in Savannah so there were cars in front and behind me. I stared ahead into traffic waiting for that confounded light to change to no avail, car in first gear, my foot on the clutch. I heard a rustling noise coming from my right. I turned my head to see what Lisa was doing. To my surprise she....

Let's back up a little...

I'm only kidding. I'm gonna tell the story now. Lisa was in the midst of a seizure. Her body convulsed, and strange guttural sounds emanated from her throat. I threw my Fox in neutral and reached over to help my girlfriend. The seat belt was tightening across her throat, so the first thing I did was to unbuckle it. I turned her over on her side, so in case she had to vomit, she wouldn't choke on it. In the midst of this, I caught a couple of shots from her flailing arms right in my eye. But the adrenalin masked any pain I was feeling. The light turned green. A cacophony of car horns blared behind me. My car, in neutral, started to roll backwards a bit. I managed to find the parking brake to stop the backward momentum, and of course ignored the drivers behind me that didn't know what was going on. The convulsions continued for what seemed like ages, although it really was not long at all. Lisa began to look like she was choking, so I did what seemed like a good idea at the time, but in fact was the exact wrong thing to do. I put my finger in her mouth to stop her from choking on her tongue. Of course, she bit the shit outta my finger, but I didn't care as long as she could still breathe. When the seizure ended, I busted a right turn on to Reynolds and took her directly to the emergency room at Candler, which fortuitously was right there.

I knew that Lisa had seizures. I knew that she took medicine daily to control them; I think it was called Dilantin. I knew that she didn't drive because of the possibility. Only she hadn't had one in the two years I knew her. In retrospect, we probably should have talked about what to do in the event of a seizure, but under the circumstances, I think I did pretty well. Sure, I had a black eye and a bloody finger, but at least Lisa was all right. I called her Mom at work and told her what happened, Lisa's father also soon showed up. Moms was giving me the side eye like it was my fault, like I short circuited her brain or something. Her father was just grateful that I didn't punk out.

"Thank you for taking care of my little girl."

Those were the most words he ever said to me in the entire 3 years Lisa and I dated. I saw Lisa have a seizure one more time. This time we were at her sister's house in that little bedroom that we spent so much time in. I was so much more prepared the second time, and I knew for the sake of my appendages, to keep them as far away from her mouth as possible. Before you ask, I don't know how she is. I haven't talked to her in like 3 years. Last I heard, she was getting her 2nd Masters degree in Tennessee. but that's another story for another day.