I once had a relative, who was a step-relative, but is no longer related to me. She was related to my grandpa’s wife at the time. Or maybe her husband was related to grandpa’s wife. Either way, we were step-relations at the time. I was eleven.

There’s no easy way to say this, and I didn’t know it at the time, but she was slightly retarded. She didn’t learn to drive until she was about 40.

Her husband worked for my grandpa.

Grandpa often does elaborate things for Christmas, so we often get together earlier in December. That year was no exception. During the two weeks or so surrounding Christmas, he and his third wife-to-be went out of town, a cruise, or to Vegas, or something. He told his employees that they were to have absolutely no Christmas parties while he was gone.

They ignored his warnings and had a party anyway. This woman was with her husband at the party and she became intoxicated. Knowing full well “how she was” and that she was drunk, her husband sent to drive home alone and ahead of him, they had two cars there.

She got on the interstate heading North in the Southbound lanes.

It was a head-on. A little boy was killed. He was 12. It was Christmas Eve.

I knew this boy from school. We were acquaintances from the halls and I officially met him, I believe, at a party the previous summer. I remember thinking that he was nice – nicer to me than some of the other boys were. I used to get made fun of a lot at school.

I don’t remember my mom telling me what happened, I don’t remember how I felt. Mostly shock, I think.

The woman driving the car got 15 years while her husband got jack. He soon hooked up with her sister who moved right in. My grandpa faced legal action because this originated at his company, but because he wasn’t even there and he told them not to have a party at all, he was okay. I don’t think anyone else got into trouble. The husband ended up later getting fired for unrelated things, he started his own competing company which is a thorn in my grandpa’s side to this day. Grandpa’s mad because he “taught him everything he knows.”

I remember it being 5 years later, maybe even earlier. There were petitions trying to be started trying to get this woman out of prison because she “wasn’t right” or something. Time served, they said. The mother and a sister (also hurt in the accident) of the boy showed up in the papers, trying to get the drunk driver more years in prison.

Why I was thinking of this today, I don’t know, but as I was doing dishes, it came to mind. Maybe it has something to do with the strange dreams I’ve been having the last couple of nights. When I wake up, I feel like I’ve been dreaming literally the whole time I’ve been asleep (usually it feels like only a small portion of my night) and they’ve been a ton of people from everywhere: past, present, etc. Just coming and going and a lot of them don’t even fit into the “story,” I just pass them in halls or on sidewalks and say “hi” or something. This has happened for at least two nights in a row, and it’s very strange.

I searched out the boy’s name along with some other key words and I found one page; I was doubting that I even remembered his first name correctly until I saw his picture, the same picture I’ve seen thousands of times since this happened.

Hi! My name is _____. My birthday was December 8th. I just turned 12! We had a rollerblading party with some of my friends. _____, my friend, sang “Happy Birthday” to me all by himself. His voice echoed all through the rink. _____, my girlfriend, and other friends from school were there too. It was a lot of fun.
This December’s been great. I got all my Christmas presents with my own money. I bought _____, my older sister, a top she admired. I got _____, my other sister, a pretty blue and white sweater. I was able to get _____ a gold bracelet at WalMart. I bought mom a wallet. She needs one and didn’t even see me buy it. This is going to be a great Christmas.
It’s been a busy month. I got to see Michael Jordan play for Chicago. Dad also took me to a Mizzou-Illini game. It’s Christmas Eve now. We go to Dad’s Mom’s first, then to my Mom’s Mom’s. After that we go home. I’m tired. We’re on our way now.
_____ never made it home. He didn’t get to give his presents. They were given out on the morning of his funeral.

I’m not sure who actually wrote the text, some of it seems like he could have written it, but not all of it. Either way…

The woman who was the drunk driver got out of prison sometime in the past year. I think it was around Christmas when Grandpa’s wife was telling my family about how she ran into this woman, her husband, and the woman’s sister. Apparently this man is still with the sister even though his wife’s home now. She said that this is not the same woman we all once knew. She said, “if you thought she was quiet then, you should see her now, I don’t even think she can talk anymore, it has changed her so much.” I think there were some words exchanged about how this woman just grunted to say “hi” because that’s all she could do.

Don’t drink and drive, people.