A Spirit Saved My Life
Witness: [Name Withheld Upon Request]
Location: Austin, Texas
Date of Encounter: May 1996
Interstate highway 35 in some parts of downtown Austin has an upper and lower level. I was driving southbound on the lower level struggling to keep my eyes open. To my right was some sort of athletic field for the University of Texas. To my left along side the highway was a cemetery. Whatever this cemetery is, there sure are a lot of fancy headstones and monuments. Many are large and tower high over the others. I noticed most appear old and ornate and all were now fading into a greyish black on the outside. It was at this point that I fell asleep.
I don’t know what woke me. I felt something, or heard something. Someone was there with me. I woke and snapped my head to the right. I stared for a second trying to understand what my eyes were taking in. They were telling me that a shadow or outline of a person was sitting there on the seat next to me. I knew I was in a moving vehicle and should look at the road, but I continued to stare for a moment longer.
The shadow was facing forward; his gaze fixed. I got the sense he wanted me to look that way. I did. I looked up just in time to see a king-sized dump truck immediately in my path and sitting idle in traffic. A wall of metal was coming directly for me.
What happened next couldn’t have taken more than a few seconds. But it felt like an eternity.
I had to stand on the break. Literally stand, and with some urgency. I could see the shadow from the corner of my eye. He was still with me. The sound of screeching tires filled my ears as the car started to pull to one side. Headstones in the cemetery were passing on my left and quickly running out. As we came even with the last of them, in line with the graveyard’s boundary, I saw the shadow get pulled back in the direction we just came. He was gone… but the dump truck was still there and I was still screeching and sliding on the road. I realized I wasn’t going to stop in time and threw the car into the emergency lane. I finally came to a stop on the right hand side of the dump truck — far enough forward and close enough to reach over and touch the rusted and dirty metal of the passenger door.
I sat there shaking and replaying what I had just experienced.
I tried to remember the details. He seemed smaller than me, with a slim build and spiked hair. I had the impression of a young man. A young man… except for the fact there was no one there.
I believe whoever he was, whatever he was, saved my life that day.
