Hayride

This weekend I went on a Hayride event with Tom's fraternity. It actually was a lot of fun - more fun than I was expecting. However, before we got there I was scared because I had bad hayride experiences. First there was the girl who died on the girl scout hayride, her name was Rachel. I knew a lot of Rachel's friends from camp (although I had never met her) and saw how they were all impacted by her death (like Jessie Imo, Danielle something or other, Kelly Wahl, Colleen Brennan, Nikki McMahon - all those girls). Also, I had a really bad experience in the third grade with hayrides.

My friend Stacy had invited me to go to this party in the country with her family. At first my parents were hesitant but after enough begging they decided to let me go. It was a huge party and they had hayrides. My friend Stacy and I jumped on one of the last hayrides of the night with a group of teenagers. They must have been like our age (19ish). Anyway they brought a radio and they were blasting the music so loud. Me and Stacy felt out of place so we decided to make the hayride more fun. We would jump off the tractor and hang onto branches and then drop down and run to catch back up with the tractor. We had each done it a couple times. It was Stacys turn and she was running to catch back up with the tractor when her shoelace got caught in the wheel. Her body when completly around with the wheel and she was run over. You would think the driver would have noticed running the trailor over a person but he didn't. I am pretty sure he was drunk and the music was so loud. I was the only one who saw it. This would be a good time to mention I was like...8 year olds. I had no idea what to do. I screamed to the driver but no one could hear over the music and my voice was quiet and squeaky because I was so scared. I jumped off the tractor to see if she was even alive. I couldn't tell if she was alive and I had no idea what to do. I tried running to catch up with the tractor but by this point the tractor had driven really far away and it was pitch black. I decided it was best to just stay with Stacy. She woke up and was screaming in pain but she didn't seem to hear me.

So there I was, 8 years old, stuck in the pitch black in the middle of woods, with my friend who I thought was dying but I couldn't help because I didn't know what to do, I had no idea how to get back through the woods to the house, I heard coyotes close around us, and it would be at least thirty minutes before the next hayride came. I just waited with Stacy for what seemed to be forever. Eventually someone noticed we were missing and they came looking for us. When there was enough light I could see how badly Stacy was hurt. She couldn't walk or sit up. This man carried her back to the house. Her dad (turns out he is an alcoholic) did not want to take her to the hospital because he was too drunk. It was the most terrifying experience of my life and I hate to think about it because it was so awful.

On the hayride someone really close to me (not naming any names) was asked by another person to jump off the tractor and hang onto trees and then run and climb back on. I had told that same person earlier on the bus ride the story of what happened to me and told him that I was really scared about the hayride. However that person chose to ignore my experience and jump of the tractor anyway. Ever since the hayride I have not been able to stop thinking about Stacy and what happened. Last night I had a weird dream about it and it scared me.

I guess I just thought if I wrote (or typed...whatever) about the whole thing that maybe it would help get all these awful images out of my head.