Innocent Guilt

Juan Monroy
Narrative Essay
13/03/12 Draft #3
Innocent Guilt

Life-threatening situations are always a good way for realizing things and gathering people. I was about 9 years old by the timeI was involved in a car accident that could have turned out so much worse. Yet it showed me that my mom will always be there for me, and no matter what, I will be her first priority. We use to go toan apartment, owned by a boyfriend of my mother’s called Emilio, in Villavicencio . Getting from my hometown to the apartment took five to six hours. Once, after a particularly long trip because of alandslide in the middle of the road, we arrived in the middle of the night. The very tired adults started moving the baggage and the groceries from the car into the apartment. We were about to finishwhen Emilio, with bags filling his hands, asked me to close the windows of the car, which was parked on a hill. He gave me the keys of the car. And I, showing confidence, took them so I could turn onthe car and close the windows. I climbed into the driver’s seat and put the key in the ignition. I turned the key and the engine screamed to life. Because the road was so sloped, the emergency brakewas not enough to resist both the force of gravity and the force of the engine. The car started moving towards the dead-end of the street just a few meters away. A big yellow house down the hill withsolid, brick walls stood still waiting for me. The house grew larger and larger; I was terrified. I thought I was going to die. Emilio dropped the bags and chased the car down the street. As I saw himappear at the open door, my reaction was to jump to the seat to my right hoping he’d be able to get into the moving car and stop it. He managed to jump into the seat. I smiled thinking everything wasover, but it wasn’t. He pressed the brake as hard as he could, but the car was moving too fast to stop in time The smile in my face vanished. I saw Emilio trying to make the car respond. I closed my...