The light turned red and I stopped at the intersection of 69th street and 55th Drive/Queens Midtown Expy in Maspeth, Queens. A Bus turned off the expressway and got stuck on 69th street in an impossible angle forcing me to reverse the car a few feet. When the lights turned green we would now easily pass in opposite directions. It completely obscured my view to the left, the direction of traffic. To my right I could see the house I rented a room in when I first moved here on April 3rd, 2003. I could see that my old room had the light on, seems so long ago now. Caught in a moment of nostalgia I failed to see the light go green, a second later a car horn rang out behind me and I slowly hit the gas. A very large SUV broke the light and shot past my car from left to right only inches away on the expressway doing well over fifty. I would never have seen it because of the bus still obscuring my view. It’s not the first time I’ve felt that I cheated death, or at least come close. I have played this event over an over in my head a thousand times and each time I die instantly as its bull-bars tear through the driver’s side door and make spaghetti from my head and upper body.

I’d have never of known what hit me and I would have ended where I started, literally.

I haven’t been complaining about much since.