It was midnight when Jack Bachman decided to leave the party. Sober and awake the only thing between him and his house was the snow that was falling at quite a rapid pace. However, he felt confident enough that he could make it home since the drive was only a couple miles across town. He turned on the car, put it in reverse, and made his way home. Cities 97 was his favorite channel and that night was no exception. John Mayer made the ride a little less stressful.

It was just like the Minnesota winters of old; a ton of snow. Jack’s vision was not 100% but he was familiar with the roads and so he kept it at the speed limit, even though most other cars were well below the limit. He was about half way when he came to a road that is fairly dangerous. As he was heading down Bush Lake Road, a windy road with many trees lining a lake, he did not slow down. The speed limit was low already and with conditions the speed he should have been going would have been about 20MPH; he was going 40MPH. As he hit the second turn he lost control of his Toyota Camry and spun. A tree with a solid, thick base was staring him in the face.

He did all he could to miss it but it was only good enough to avoid a head on collision. The right side of his car was punished by the tree and Jack was jerked to the side and the only thing from stopping him was his seat belt. There was no doubt he did severe damage to the car but the most important thing was that he was okay. So, after reality hit him that he did indeed have to wake up his parents to tell them what had happened, he reluctantly took his cell phone out and dialed to his home.

“Hello?” his father answered wondering who was calling. Although they had Caller ID it was 12:18AM at that point and he was in no mood to be reading anything of any sort.

“Hey dad, it’s Jack. I need you to come get me. I spun out on Bush Lake and hit a tree.” Sure, it was an uneasy feeling telling him but it had to be done.

“Are you okay?” The typical and predictable response from a parent was issued and Jack reassured him that only the car needed to be fixed. Jack and his dad continued to talk for about a minute and them Mr. Bachman got dressed and headed down to Bush Lake. It was going to be a long, cold night.

When Mr. Bachman arrived Jack didn’t say a word. It was not necessarily because he was scared of his dad but he wanted to let his dad interpret the situation as he saw it. Jack was lucky his dad understood, although it was no exception of his character to be kind. They talked it over and waited for the tow truck to get there. A few times somebody would stop and ask if everything was alright but more often than not cars would just slowly pass by and realize help was already there. It was a little over twenty minutes before a large truck was heard coming around the bend. It was going to be okay.

The tow truck came. An ambulance was called, and then his parents were notified. He would no longer speed because at 12:43AM Jack Bachman was found and pronounced dead. He had collided head first into a tree on Bush Lake Road.