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So, while the band took a couple hours off from practicing, David and I and one of his band mates, Terry, went to Venice Beach and did some surfing.
"Venice Beach has pretty mellow waves," Terry said, who was the expert surfer among the three of us.
"That's exactly what we're looking for," I said.
"That's exactly as much as the two of us can handle," David said with a laugh. "It's been at least a year since I went surfing."
"Me, too," I replied. The last time I went surfing had been on a trip to visit David when I was still with Christie.
David drove us to Venice Beach in his slick new BMW SUV. For the next two hours, from three o'clock until five, we spent our time in the waves off Venice Beach, and I noted that David still put his all into it, despite claiming he didn't want to risk hurting himself. He was a good surfer, much better than me, but he'd spent the last eight years in LA and had more time to improve.
As the big brother, I tried my best to compete with him, but each of us had our own talents. Surfing was not my best sport.
"That was a magnificent wipe out," David said to me after a spectacular fall I took while trying a wave that was perhaps a bit too big for me.
"It was. I think I won the competition for today."
"You did," David said with a laugh. "I'll grant you that."
"I think that deserves at least a beer," Terry said and so the three of us returned the surfboards to the rental company, packed up and walked along the boardwalk, enjoying the sights.
We came to a restaurant along the boardwalk that served fish tacos and cold imported beer and decided to make a meal out of it. We sat for about an hour, eating and talking business, the band, the Chronicle, and our plans for the future.
"Have another beer," David said. "Let's celebrate."
"We have to drive back," I replied.
"I'll drive," Terry said. "You two brothers have another beer. Enjoy yourselves."
"Thanks, bro," David said and ordered us another beer.
Finally, at about six thirty, we piled back into the car, with Terry at the helm, and drove back to Brentwood.
Only, we didn't make it.
Coming around a sharp corner on Sunset Boulevard near Rustic Creek, we hit another vehicle head-on that wandered into our lane. It happened so fast, there wasn't really any time to avoid the car and while we weren't traveling too fast, it sounded like two freight trains hitting as our front end mashed into the front end of the BMW.
While it took only seconds, it seemed to take forever for the cars to stop skidding along the road before we stopped. After we hit the BMW, our vehicle slid into the embankment, the SUV flipping over onto its roof. The other vehicle crashed into the trees on the side of the street.
For the first ten seconds, I blinked, trying to figure out what to do, but then my survival instincts kicked in. I wasn't hurt too badly. I was hanging upside down, but the air bags had deployed and since I was in the back seat on the far side from the driver, who took the brunt of the hit, I was fine.
"Are you guys okay?" I called out to David and Terry.
There was no answer at first, and I struggled to unlatch my seatbelt. I finally managed it, bracing myself with one arm so that I didn't injure myself when I fell from the seat onto the crumpled roof.
A car had stopped on the side of the road and as I tried to
kick open the side door, I saw the driver get out and take out his cell. I assumed he was calling 9-1-1 but the safety app on the SUV's dashboard had already done so.
The front of the roof was really crumpled. I managed to crawl out and after I checked myself out, I tried to get the passenger door open. David was still hanging upside down and wasn't moving. I didn't hear anything from either of them, and from what I could see, Terry's side of the vehicle was pretty mangled.
I didn't think. I just did.
The engine was smoking, and I was afraid it would catch fire so although I was worried about removing David before I knew whether he had a back or neck injury, I didn't want him to burn alive in case the fire spread.
I finally managed to get the passenger door opened and the man who called 9-1-1 helped me to get David out. He had a gash in the side of his head, but I couldn't tell if anything else was broken. We laid him on the ground a dozen feet away on the grass, and I listened to his heart, which was slow and steady. He was alive, and he was breathing, but he was still unconscious. I took off my shirt and t-shirt, so I could use the t-shirt to bandage David's head, then I hands down David's arms and legs, checking for broken bones and any cuts. Thankfully, there didn't appear to be any.
Another car stopped, and someone ran to the other vehicle that hit us. It was pretty badly banged up and I hoped that whoever it was, they were okay, but they had a BMW and it wasn't as sturdy as our SUV. The good Samaritan who was helping us was named Don. He went back to his vehicle and grabbed a fire extinguisher from his trunk, which he used on the engine to extinguish the flames that were sprouting from interior. Then he went to check on Terry. A third car had stopped, and the driver was helping him check out the car to see if they could reach him, but the vehicle was wedged on its roof against the side of a hill.
