Picked up a friend at the airport, it was a late night, driving home in the rain.

Get on the freeway, the rain's coming down harder. I can hardly see. Taking the 5 south and take the merge onto the 54. Climbing up the offramp which always seems impossibly high at a distance. The rain is pouring, as we round the bend the car in front of me loses control, hits the wall on one side, twice, front, side, spins out and slams into the other. It is horrifying. the stuff of nightmares, in that I have actually had nightmares about this exact bridge, flying off of it and flung into an abyss like rainbow road. Im trying to stop the car without slamming on the brakes and hoping no one is in back of me coming up the incline, rounding the corner going too fast to stop in time.

We come to a stop and im breathing hard. My friend gets out of the car to check on the driver. cars begin piling up in back of me, thankfully all coming to a stop. Some drivers are a little annoyed (or a lot), honking, upset at the car that is splayed across both lanes at a very incorrect angle. My friend is holding up a hand to stop the vehicles from approaching, seeing him standing on the freeway also feels incorrect. A car honks and he flips the bird.

As my friend starts approaching the car, it reverses, almost pinning him against the wall. Cars start taking advantage of the gap thats opened and begin driving around. He scoots around the vehicle and approaches the driver. She gets out. Its a woman. What looks like an impossible amount of hair products and lotions fill the door well pocket, lit by my headlights as the door swings open. They're talking. My dog is standing on the center console, alert, watching my friend. Another vehicle has pulled over. They're all talking, hugging themselves to stay warm in the rain and maybe partially to protect themselves from these strangers they are compelled to help.

My friend reaches in to the woman's car. He gets in. I assume he's trying to get it into drive, but she's running towards my car, she opens the passenger door and gets in. She's not a woman, she's a girl. She's 19 I think. She says sorry and explains my friend wants me to follow him as he drives her car off the freeway. I say it's okay and "This is Chola", who is now sitting on her lap.

I see her car pulling out with the hazards on and I follow, mumbling reassuring things to the girl. She says "Sorry can I look at my face? I got kind of bruised up." I say of course and she flips the vanity open, probably unable to figure out the dome light, I imagine, since I can never figure out the dome light. My car starts beeping about needing seatbelts. She apologizes and puts it on over Chola. We merge onto the 54, cars are careening by and i can barely see, just fixated on the hazard lights in front of me, switching across three lanes to the next exit. We take it. The windows are fogged up completely, we've probably been breathing hard, her blood is probably warming the car, I hit the defogger and roll down my window and let rain in.

We pull into a parking lot I come to very often. I ask her if she's going to be okay. I ask her if has someone who can pick her up. She makes motions indicating she lives close by, and its only 9 minutes. She asks if the car is drivable, as if i would know. She gets out, my friend gets out. He gets in and says ok we can go. I dont go. I want to make sure she's okay. She's looking around the car at the front end damage. My friend gets out again and says "You want to pull it off?" She nods and he rips off the bumper entirely. I think he enjoys it. He's about to set it down, and she opens the back door of her car and he tucks it in the back seat. It's kind of funny. It's not like theyre going to stick it back on.

He gets in my car again. I roll down the window and tell her to be safe. We try to pull away but have to wait for some bozo in front of us who is afraid to take the turn out of the parking lot. Someone motions to let him in but he's staring at us. My friend explains the girl was too shaky to get the car out of reverse, that's why she almost hit him and why he drove the car for her, he asks if I saw her almost hit him and asks if Chola was okay with her getting in the car instead of him.

Its still raining the whole way home. I tell him you can learn a lot about a person by how they respond in an emergency and that his first instinct was to go see if the driver was okay says a lot about him. I take him to the taco bell drive through, and he's having trouble pronouncing Cantina chicken quesadilla and large dr pepper so i say it for him. While we're waiting in line he tells me the second guy that pulled over had volunteered to drive in front of him, acting as lead and backup while we pulled the gir's car off the freeway. That was nice of him. I didn't know we were a little caravan.