Chapter
10

By Saturday night, July 11th, Alex was settled into her hospital bed in a regular room. That night, Elna, Alex, and I settled in to sleep in that room. It was our second night without Jackson with us, and it was really sinking in. Alex’s health seemed to be doing miraculously well. Neuro checks continued to be excellent, and she was eating and drinking well. The next day would be Jackson’s funeral. It wasn’t exactly the weekend that we thought it was going to be. The day before, Elna and I had thought that we might head over to Baton Rouge. Our graduating class was celebrating the 15th anniversary of our high school graduation that weekend. This was certainly not that kind of weekend.

 

Again, Elna and I lay in bed with Alex between us. However, there would be no sleep for me this night. My mind was racing unlike at any other time in my life. There were so many “What if?” questions racing through my mind. There were so many realizations that we would miss so many expected events in Jackson’s life. No high school graduation for Jackson. These kinds of thoughts were overloading my mind, so I stepped out of the room.

 

I grabbed the keys to the car. I don’t know how it got to the hospital, but someone was caring for every need we had. I went and sat in the car and turned it on. I went to an all-night convenience store and bought a newspaper to see what was said about the accident. The article seemed cold, and simply factual. However, even their facts were wrong. It called Jackson a 5-year-old boy. He would have been mad about that. He was four.

 

I decided to drive out to the scene of the accident. The weather was still terrible. It was pouring buckets and buckets of rain down. It was extremely late and very dark out. As I approached the area of Military Road where the accident had occurred, I looked for a safe place to park. There was a small, old motel nearby called The Green Springs Motel. The motel had a tainted reputation especially this late at night. But I parked in front of the motel. Again, it was pouring rain, but there were several characters out wondering what this man in a fancy white Jaguar sedan wanted from the Green Springs Motel this late at night. I left the car and started walking in the pouring rain down Military Road towards where Jackson had left us. The whole area was a mess. It was muddy. Tree branches were everywhere. A deluge of water was dropping from the sky. There were a couple of pieces of the Suburban up in the trees that were too high for me to even grab. It was all a mess. Whatever I was looking for there, it wasn’t there.

 

Luke 24:4-6 New International Version

 

4 While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5 In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee:

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