Kaitlyn pulled into her friend, Emily's house and expertly parked her blue Prius off to the side of the driveway. Her car was filled with everything from fake blood to curling irons to a very realistic looking baseball bat, and she was excited. It was Halloween and she and Emily had been planning their matching costumes for quite some time. With just an hour before their departure time, there was much to be done.
The girls closed themselves into Emily's bedroom and proceeded to curl their hair, paint their nails, perfect their makeup and get into their costumes. Finally, they were ready, and they looked spectacular.
The plan was to ride with Emily's parents, along with her four siblings to Flushing to trick-or-treat at Emily's grandparents' house. A couple friends from school would be joining them there, too.
After two hours of running through the neighborhood in the chilly fall air, the group of kids was tired and cold. They retreated to Emily's grandparents' house to sort candy and drink hot cider. When all candy trades had been made, and everyone was warm once again, it was time to head home.
There were stops on the way back to Davison to drop off a boy in Flint, and another boy closer to home. Finally, they arrived back at Emily's house. It was nearly 10:00pm, the witching hour for new teen drivers, but Kaitlyn's phone was dead. She didn't feel comfortable driving in the dark with a dead cell phone, so she tried to charge it a little before heading home. Kaitlyn's parents were getting worried that she would be driving past curfew and urged her to get on her way. Kaitlyn said her goodbyes to Emily and left.
Within just a couple of minutes, Emily's phone rang. Kaitlyn had driven into a ditch. Emily's mom wanted to know where and rushed to help. Her mom didn't have to go far, as Kaitlyn had gone into the ditch right at the end of Emily's driveway!
There was nothing too dreadful about this ditch, but because of all of the recent rain, there was quite a bit of water flowing, making it impossible to just drive that little blue Prius out of it. Emily's dad, who was just settling in for the evening, threw on some clothes and went to help Kaitlyn.
As Kaitlyn sat in her car, hoping for a quick tow, the rear end of her car sunk lower and lower into the ditch water. The gurgling sound was quite ominous in the dark of the night.
Emily's dad had lots of experience getting various stuck things un-stuck, so he was confident he could pull this little blue car to safety. He crawled under the front end of the car, trying to find a safe place to attach a tow rope. Finally, he was able to get the rope attached. He instructed Kaitlyn to put the car in neutral and then he slowly backed up. The little blue car began to move. It was working! And then, the truck's tires started spinning. Emily's dad quickly stopped pulling and got out to assess the situation. Unfortunately, the driveway culvert was now firmly wedged between the rear door of the car and the tire.
The simple tow job turned out to be not so simple. Emily's parents felt so badly for Kaitlyn because they knew their driveway was a little tricky to navigate, especially in the dark and this accident could've happened to anyone. There were reflective driveway markers at one point, but apparently they were missing now. Kaitlyn's dad drove across town to pick her up. As imagined, he was angry and frustrated and quickly picked up Kaitlyn and decided to leave the car until the next day.
By morning, the shock of the incident had worn off a bit, and in the light of day things looked bad but not terrible.
By mid-morning, several neighbors had stopped by or called to offer to help get the blue Prius out of the ditch. Kaitlyn's parents wanted to wait for a tow truck, though, so the car stayed put. In the early afternoon, Kaitlyn's stepmom and grandpa came by to see if they could tow it out. After finding a place to attach the tow strap and spinning ruts into the driveway with their truck, the little blue car stayed where it was.
The problem was the culvert. The only way to safely get the car out of the ditch without causing significant damage would be to somehow move the car not forward or backward, but to the right, away from the metal culvert. Emily's parents again offered to try and pull it sideways with strategically placed trucks and tow straps, but Kaitlyn's family wanted to wait for the expertise of the tow truck.
Finally, around 4:30pm, the tow truck arrived. The driver got out and assessed the situation. It quickly became apparent that this tow job wasn't as easy as it appeared. He decided to call his boss and have him come and check out the precariously positioned Prius.
Soon, Emily's dad arrived home from work, Kaitlyn's stepmom and grandpa arrived, and the second tow truck was on the scene. This was turning into quite the spectacle! Of course it was that time of day when all the neighbors were coming home from work and the road was a constant flow of traffic ogling at that car in the ditch.
Together, the men came up with a plan. They'd use a tree across the ditch to attach a tow strap to, which was attached to the car on one end and the tow truck on the other.
Slowly, the tow strap tightened. And slowly, the car was pulled safely away from the metal culvert.
They kept pulling that little blue car until they had a clear line to pull it out of the ditch from the front. And then, there it was: the reflective driveway marker popped out from under the car. Kaitlyn had backed directly over it! At this point, all anyone could do was chuckle a little at that.
The tow strap was then connected to the front tire and, as Kaitlyn's stepmom steered, the truck towed that blue Prius up and out of the ditch.
Miraculously, the only damage to the car was a popped rear tire. The tow truck driver offered to change it for an additional $125. Luckily, Emily's dad had all the tools necessary to change the damaged tire. Within just a couple of minutes, the little blue car was sporting its spare tire.
After a rough 24 hours, the blue Prius was back on the road. Thankfully, no one was hurt and I'm sure the time will come when this memory will become a little funny for Kaitlyn's family. Her stepmom was taking a lot of photos with the promise of displaying them on graduation day.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, raising teenagers is no easy feat. Mistakes will be made by the children and by the parents. It's tough giving kids freedom and letting them figure things out. I'm sure lessons were learned on this Halloween night, and I know that photo of the blue photo circulated on Snapchat, but hopefully amidst the laughter at this little mistake, those kids also realized how quickly something can happen when you're behind the wheel of a car.
This is the end of this Halloween story, however I am sure it won't be the end of the excitement at our house here as we navigate the teen years with our children and their friends.
(Names have been changed to protect those involved.)
