Fat Joke

The storm outside had just settled. Jobless and locked in the house for days, we were itching to get out.

Binod had been watching some reality TV garbage all day when he turned to me and said, “Let’s go shoot some pool, bro.” I complied.

We headed out to this local pool hall by the freeway. On our way Samrat called and said he was going to join us after work. All this while Subin and Suman had gone to Weatherford to see some folks that had been visiting Texas and had some gift from their parents they wanted to pick up.

It was a cold -dark night, Samrat showed up rather anxious talking on his cell phone, while Binod and I were engrossed with our game in hand. When inquired with Samrat and he mentioned that Subin and Suman were on the side of Interstate 20 trying to get his worked up Kia to start. Lately, Subin had been talking about trying to sell that car and get something reliable. They were going to get help while we were on standby as rescue, if they needed to be.

Almost an hour passed by but no response from the two. We even presumed that the car must have had a bad battery or someone might have helped fix it.  We tried calling them to check but both their cell phones said they were out of range. After several voice mails and text messages it got to a point where worry started creeping in. Samrat suggested we go take a look to check for them and without any hesitation Binod and I were in his car on I20 west. Samrat had an idea on where they were stranded but all of us were rather unfamiliar with that part of town.

I sat in the back seat unaware of what Samrat and Binod were talking about. My eyes were fixed outside the car. We got past the city and farther we went there was more of nothing to look at. The temperature outside must have been close to freezing. Some what like Kathmandu, during the cold winter months.  I was having flashbacks of home since I had not been here in the US for too long. Lot went inside my mind, made new friends, was looking for some old ones and starting a whole new life in a totally new place made me miss home and family even more. But somehow the company i had and the hope that still was alive in me kept me smiling and moving on.

We now were about forty minutes into the drive and Samrat lowered the radio and started to point towards the other side of the freeway where the two of them were supposed to be. We spotted them but had to drive further up and make a U-turn to get to them. They were both standing outside with the bonnet up and fiddling with something as if they knew what was wrong.

Once we got there, Suman jumped into Samrat’s Honda, “Turn the heater on man, my balls are about to freeze”.

We got out to see what we could do to resolve this issue. Being relevantly new to this circle of friends and to the country itself, I did not have much to say. I was an audience, lets just say. I used to hit it off pretty good with Suman so i stepped into the car with him and he told me what all they had been doing for the last hour and a half. He showed me his cell phone which had no signal at that spot. He joked about how they had gone out into the fields with nothing but a Wal-Mart shopping bag to find water since the radiator had overheated.

Next thing i know Samrat was digging up his trunk looking for something and i asked Subin, “What are we going to do?”

He said that they were intending to pull the car to the next gas station to leave it overnight as it was no point trying to stand there in the middle of the night in that cold looking like a bunch of idiots. They had even called 911 and a patrol did pass by, asked them what the problem was and left them there with promise of help. May be a tow truck. So, my friends decided to take the matters into their own hands. Samrat pulled a rope that did look like it was made for towing with hooks on each side to latch onto each car. I helped and watched as they prepared to actually pull the Kia with the help of Samrat’s new Honda Civic.

All set and I was in the back seat of the Kia with Subin on the driver’s seat and Binod in front with him. I instinctively chose the Kia since I was closer to Subin and Binod I guess.

But Subin turned around and said, “Bro why don’t you go sit in the car in front since you are fat it might be easier to pull without you in here”. Subin and his fucked up humor.

” Yea! Really funny”. I moved to the car in front with Suman and Samrat. Suman was lying down in the back seat and I went and sat next to Samrat in the front passenger side.

Both had their four-way lights on and off we went. We were pulling the little Kia with not much discomfort. After about half a mile when both cars gained a steady momentum the Kia started to swerve right and left. I kept watching it through the rare view mirror until it was swerving a little too much out of my comfort zone.

I said to Samrat, “May be we ought to just let the car be on the side of the road, this does not look like a good idea. “

“We’re almost there”, Samrat said. I decided not to look at the mirror no more. It only bothered me more and more.  At that hour of the night all other vehicles on the road were eighteen wheelers carrying cargo into town.

About two minutes after i had made that comment to Samrat, I heard something that sounded like an explosion. And next thing i know i am holding on to dear life while the car we are in is spinning out of control. And as the car spun it was like everything was in slow motion. My mind raced so fast that it could not make sense of what was actually happening. But all this while i can see Samrat gripping onto the steering wheel and looking blank as white light. His mind probably went though the same thing as mine and Suman’s in the back seat. What in the hell just happened here?

After about two complete spins the car swerved on to the grassy patch separating the two sides of the interstate. I finally let the breath out that i was holding all these twenty seconds of unrealistic chaos, the car came to a stop. Almost unanimously we all gazed at each others eyes. But we had nothing to say to each other. I wonder what would be the right thing to say.

Samrat got out of the car immediately and I turned to Suman in the back who was grabbing on to the seat dazed and confused and he uttered almost in a whisper “What the hell just happened dude?”

I answered with a question “Are you all right?”

And without answering each other we just jumped out of the car. Still unable to access the situation we walked towards the eighteen wheeler that was stopped in the middle of the road. An older white man stepped out of the cabin with a flash light in his hand asking us if we were all right. He seemed weary and kept rubbing his eyes as we screamed at him in anger how he could not see two cars with all their blinkers on.

A cold chill went down my spine when I saw all the debris from the Kia scattered on the freeway across fifty odd yards. I saw a large piece of the bumper which was bent in half in the middle of the road. My mind was still racing with thoughts and i felt weak in my knees thinking about what I might have to witness tonight. Binod’s face kept flashing in front of me as I thought of the worst. Subin’s comment about me sitting in his backseat kept ringing in my ears to the point of dizziness.  The Kia was visibly destroyed after taking a hit from an 80,000 pound big rig moving at seventy miles an hour.

Subin and his fucked up humor. It seemed like a fat joke saved my life. I almost fell sick in my stomach and i squatted down leaning on to the wet road and I saw the front portion of what was remaining of the Kia from underneath the trailer of the rig. There seemed to be a figure trying to open the driver’s side door in the pitch darkness.

I instinctively started to run towards it.