The Summer I Almost Died, a guest post by Sheenah Freitas

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Please welcome Sheenah Freitas to the blog today! She’s here to share her summer memories, which are a little different than most. I literally cracked up laughing when I read this! This, this is summer at it’s best.

Family vacations can either be the worst possible torture a parent can bestow upon their teenager or something fun to look forward to. Having been a bookworm and nerd my entire life, I loved those bizarre outings the parents took us on which would prove to be educational. Someone had proposed that we go visit some caverns (might’ve been me). We had been to the Ohio Caverns once before (twice for me) and wanted to take a look at some of the smaller caverns around that area. We decided on one that was close by and made our plans.

The day was gorgeous: sunny, not a cloud in the sky, and just the perfect temperature. It was one of those days where everyone was in high spirits and nothing could possibly go wrong. We remembered to stock up on bottled water, grabbed our trusty directions, and headed out. It wasn’t supposed to be a terribly long drive — a couple hours at most.

Things started to go wrong the moment Dad decided to forgo the directions and street signs. That day, my brother and I learned that when you’re on a country road in the middle of nowhere and the sign says: curve ahead, reduce speed to 15 mph, you should do what the sign tells you to do. It’s not the same as the sign in the city that states the same thing because what the one in the country is really saying: IF YOU DON’T SLOW DOWN NOW, YOU’RE GOING TO DIE.

Dad decided to slow down to about 25 mph, but it wasn’t enough. The curve in question was a sharp right turn on a steep cliff with no guardrails in sight. He pulled the car hard into the next lane and for a precarious second, the car was balanced on two wheels as we made our turn. I looked out of the window, clutching my seat, and someone was screaming (possibly me). As I looked down, I could only see rocks and the canopy of the forest.

We were lucky that a car wasn’t coming in the opposite direction as we made our way back into our correct lane, but the drama didn’t end there. As we continued driving toward our destination, we happened upon a small town. The people looked unfriendly and there seemed to be abandoned cars everywhere. We came up with a list of theories; the popular one was turning the people of the town into serial killers. How else could one explain the abandoned cars? We continued on, hoping that the caverns were nearby.

The caverns ended up being a shady little place outside of the town with a graveyard right across from it. A tow truck was removing a car as we drove in, driving the nail into our serial killer theory. There was a grill that was supposed to be the restaurant on the grounds that looked unsanitary and perhaps it was our imaginations, but there seemed to be dried blood nearby. Only one truck was in the parking lot —the employee’s. It was a quick decision to drive off in the opposite direction and revisit the Ohio Caverns. I’m sure the serial killer was upset at the sight of us leaving but I, for one, am glad to be alive.