This is the official blog of The Missing Patient

On my walk home today, I was listening to Jónsi on my headphones and staring at the light,waiting for it to give me permission to cross the street. For those of you who live in Kelowna, I was waiting to cross Bernard to walk down Bertram, the street I now live on. It had been a long day of walking, it was VERY hot, I was sweating and I was feeling a bit light headed from a little dehydration. The light turned and so I took two steps out to cross the road to get to my apartment building when a white suburban,which seemed to come out of nowhere, stopped suddenly, the bumper pushed up against my left arm. It was a woman driver and she was white as a ghost. I don't know if she was trying to run the red light or just failed to see it but if she hadn't hit the breaks the exact second she did, I would either be in the hospital with several broken bones or even dead right now.I stopped for a second and thought about how good her breaks must be. The vehicle looked brand new and shone in the sun like diamonds or a pure white horse. I looked at my arm against her bumper and the shocked look on her face. I took a quick second (which felt like much longer, as if time had stopped) to reflect on what had just happened and then continued to walk as Jónsi was singing in my ears; "No one knows you, til it's over. No one wants to, til it's over."

I turned off my iPod and looked back after making it safely across the rest of the street. Some guy on his bike starting screaming at her and cars were honking, "Do you realize you almost killed that guy you (I won't repeat the cuss words)." The driver looked like she was about to cry. I just kept walking. I didn't want to cause a scene and it seemed that others were doing that for me anyways.At first I thought, "I wish she hadn't had stopped." Because truthfully, I am more afraid to live than to die. But as I thought about it, the more I realized it was a selfish thought. I might not care about whether I live or die but that poor lady who almost hit me may have never been able to forgive herself if she had. That and tomorrow is my little brother's 6th birthday and it would have been inconsiderate to him if his big brother died the day before his birthday.

Funny... the things that go through my mind after almost being killed by a careless driver.

-jeremy heynen

Aug. 17th, 2010