Jackknifed
8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 9 Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. (1 Peter 5:8-9 NKJV)
The strange events associated with the Driveway and the House had all been confined to those times when we were physically there. Following all the other bizarre encounters that we had experienced at the Driveway, we were able to take time away to recoup, regroup, and try and forget. That was all about to change.
There was a several week span of time between the events of the Closet and our return to the Driveway. Quite honestly, we were in shock at what we had found, and we were concerned about what we might discover when, and if, we decided to return. I don’t want to say that we were “licking our wounds”, but we were certainly re-evaluating our future involvement with the Driveway.
During our other breaks from the Driveway we were able to forget about those experiences, and enjoy our normal daily lives. This time was different. Over the following month we experienced three events that were more disturbing, bizarre, and unexplainable than anything we had previously experienced at the Driveway. These events became turning points in our future dealings with the Driveway, and they also were events that caused us to rethink so much of what we thought we knew and understood. This was when we began to understand the spiritual dimension of the Driveway. The first of these events took place on a Saturday evening, when we encountered the Jackknifed Semi.
Like most young men, Saturday evenings were “date nights”; this particular Saturday was no different. Craig and I spent the evening (6-10pm) with our girlfriends. While I’m not sure how Craig spent that evening, my girlfriend and I enjoyed a pizza at Minski’s Pizza in the Northland, and then went to see a movie at Metro North. After taking her home, I headed over to Craig’s where I caught up with him just after 10pm. From there we decided to head to the NKC Bowling Alley to play some video games and catch up with some of our buddies, specifically, we went to play their four-person-table-top-football game!
Heading out from Craigs house in his old Volvo, we got unto I-35, heading South. Traffic was relatively light with a semi-truck a few car lengths in front of us, and a few cars about a half mile or so behind us. This is a road that everyone living in the area has driven on hundreds, if not thousands, of time. There was absolutely nothing out of the ordinary, until there was!
At one point I-35 makes a sweeping curve to the left just a couple of miles from the exit into North Kansas City; about halfway into this curve I-29 merges into I-35. It was just before this curve that the semi-truck in front of us began to weave on the road.
We had no idea what semi was doing. Did it blow out a tire? Was there an accident in front of it that they were having to avoid? Was there an animal on the road that they were avoiding? We didn’t know the answer, but we assumed that there was a logical reason for the driver’s actions.
Craig did the only thing that he could do in that moment; he slowed down, creating a more-than-adequate space between us and the semi. The cars behind us were still too far back to see what was going on in front of us. At this point, the semi began to swerve back and forth across both lanes of I-35, just before where I-29 merges. And then it happened.
Beyond our wildest imagination we watched as the cab of the swerving semi took a left turn and jackknifed in the middle of the road. When it came to a stop the semi’s cab had turned as far back into the trailer as I imagined it could. Craig pulled onto the shoulder, stopped, and we got out to see if there was anything we could do to help the driver.
As we were getting out of the car, another car pulled up behind us. The driver and passenger (what we assumed to be husband and wife) got out and asked us what had happened. Facing away from the semi, telling them what we had witnessed, their eyes got as big as baseballs, pointed at where the semi was, got back into their car, and they left. Confused, we followed their car with our eyes and then realized that the semi was no longer there.
We know we didn’t imagine all of this. We saw the semi swerve and then jackknife. We saw the other car pull onto the shoulder behind us. We talked with the couple. And then, we watched as they drove off on I-35, right where the semi had been just moments before!
We know that the semi hadn’t simply straightened out and continued driving as the only vehicle on the road in front of us was the car of the couple that we were just speaking with. This semi had vanished, much like it had been a prop in a David Copperfield magic trick.
This was the first time that we began to truly question what we had gotten ourselves into. There was no obvious reason to connect this event to anything we had experienced at the Driveway, but that is exactly where our thoughts went. The next two events only reinforced those thoughts.
Join us next time for Tick Tock.
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