HE’S OKAY! (Grandma!)
But yes, Jazz rear-ended someone yesterday. Yes. It was his fault.
I had no idea. nobody called me.
Hmm …
I came home from work yesterday, pulled into the garage (because I’m spoiled and get to park in the garage whereas all three of my guys have to park outside Heh), and noticed someone had thrown a Sonic cup out of their window and it was lying in our ditch. Since I’m a good neighbor *cough-as-opposed-to-our-slobs-for-neighbors-cough*, I took the time to pick it up. As I’m walking back into the house, I see it …
What. The. Hell?!?
I walked over to his car and just sort of stared at it. I blinked, then blinked again.
Yep. Jazz’s car was munched up.
I kept my cool mainly because I was in shock. You always think this is a possibility in the back of your mind, but you don’t really think it’ll happen to you … until it does.
I walked into the house and hunted Jazz down. He was on his bed, with his pillow pulled over his head. He wasn’t crying, but I could tell he was close.
“So. Tell me what happened.”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” came a muffled voice from under the pillow.
“Tough. Sit up and tell me what happened,” was my sympathetic answer. I’m like the most mean mom, ever.
Apparently, Jazz left school and was on his way to Kevin’s office to help out when he looked down, just for a second (that’s all it takes!) to make sure he had gotten his name badge. When he looked up, BAM, he hit the SUV in front of him.
And it was loaded down with other students, from his school. Awkward! (Though he didn’t know them).
Jazz called Kevin and when Kevin found out no one was hurt, told him to call the police. Kevin sort of had a work emergency and couldn’t leave so Jazz called the police, waited for him to show up, got his ticket (because it was his fault), then drove (because thankfully, the car still drives and the air bag didn’t deploy which leads me to believe he wasn’t driving that fast, thank God) to Kevin’s office.
Jazz will have to go to court February 25th – Kevin will be able to go with him.
That should be an experience.
I was a little miffed that no one called me, but at the same time, I was relieved. Because really, what could I do? No one was hurt. The police were called. All I would have done was make the situation worse by coddling him.
Welcome to the real world. (Though I did tell Jazz that if that EVER happens again and he IS hurt, CALL ME!)
Kevin called our insurance today and the insurance adjuster wants to talk to Jazz to hear his side of the story. I have no idea what will come of that. We only have liability on the car and there is no way it’s totalled so … ??
I just hope the guy he hit doesn’t cause us any problems. Jazz said that his car was only dented, but then again, that’s what he said about his car too.
As you can see from above, it’s a little more than a “dent.”
Insurance will go up, of course. But that’s par for the course, I suppose. Kevin has already told him that the money he would have been making helping him at the office will go toward repairing the car. I have no idea how long that will last, I’m leaving that part up to Kevin, but Jazz is pretty bummed – he was hoping to save for a new computer.
We have no intention of getting it fixed any time soon. One – we don’t have time to be without the car – Jazz needs it for school and no one has time to run him around town right now. And two – Kevin wants him to drive it around as a reminder to BE CAREFUL.
At least the air bag didn’t deploy – then we’d have to total it because the cost to replace an air bag would have cost more than the car is worth. We’ll see how much it’s going to cost us to replace the hood and grill .. that will be enough to hopefully resell it someday, I suppose.
Neither Kevin nor I freaked out about this – I mean, it’s a done deal, there’s not much left over to get freaked out about. As I told Jazz, “it’s only a car.” The most important thing is, he was wearing his seat belt, he wasn’t hurt, and no one was hurt in the other car, either.
God was watching out for him because it could have been so much worse.
In some ways, I’m sort of glad this happened. I’ve never had to worry about Dude’s driving, he’s a good driver and he’s very aware of his surroundings, but Jazz is cut from a different cloth. He’s sort of in his own world most of the time and yesterday, he got a healthy dose of reality.
I just wish his reality check hadn’t cost us so much money.
Write From Karen 