It had been a long day. A 9am start, a four hour drive to London through nasty traffic to then spend most of the day setting up the cameras for that evening’s event. Lots of hanging around, long conversations over minuscule problems and finally, the filming. She had been placed on the balcony, her shot was the wide overlooking the audience and staging area. The shot was the backup and establishing, while the closer cameras did most of the work. While she stood next to the tripod attempting to find something other than just the stage and audience to film, she was aware of her aching back and sore feet. She shifted from foot to food, leaning on the rails of the balcony and glancing at her watch. Finally the evening came to a close and it was time to pack up and make their way home. Cameras in boxes, tripods in cases. Cables reeled in and microphones carefully wrapped. It was always quicker to leave than arrive and everyone was eager to get on the road back home. The campervan was meticulously packed, silver flight cases containing the precious video cameras went in first, followed by similar sized boxes, the monitors, tripods and finally open boxes with random cables and odds and ends. Doors were shut and everyone settled down. She was sat facing towards the drivers cabin, on the small sofa like seat around a fold down table. Nick was seated opposite her, facing away from the window. After a while she took out her book, it was already late and she had an early start in the morning. She would close her eyes in a little while. After an hour or so, Jerry stopped the van to drop Sophie home. Quiet goodbyes were spoken and she decided now would be a good time to close her eyes. She clicked off the light above her head and the van was plunged into darkness, with only the passing streetlights. Everyone was involved in something. Nick had his headphones in, Jerry was sipping a coffee thoughtfully while driving and his son Josh slept with his head resting gently on the passenger window.
She lay her head on her arms over the table, using her jacket as a make shift cushion. She drifted off to sleep, with the sound of the van humming quietly in her ears. A few hours later she sleepily shifted so she could curl up with her head on the back of the seat, and unclipped her seatbelt with a brief flash of deeply ingrained guilt before falling unconscious once more. Suddenly the van swerved and she tensed as if to wait out the movement. She couldn’t hold herself upright. Then she was falling as the van swerved violently across the road. She pinched her eyes, hoping she was dreaming. She could only see black and objects flying all around her as she lost her sense of which way up she was. Cushions from the seats were bouncing around and she tucked herself into a ball as she was flung around the cabin. ‘No, no, no, no, no’ was all she could hear, her own voice in her ears as she braced herself for some violent pain to slice through her body. She realised it was only her voice she could hear, no one else screaming or shouting or even brakes squeaking. Just the wild flying of the van and the sense that it was all happening too quickly, there was no warning to this horror, was that how it was? Was this it? She simply squeezed her eyes closed and waited for it to end. And then it did. Jumping up, she realised she was standing on glass and something smelt like burning. She was breathing heavily, half hyperventilating and half through exertion. She was shaking all over and quickly shouted to everyone.
“Is everyone ok? Nick? Are you ok? Jerry?” Josh was crying heavily in the corner and Jerry was staring at her, standing up in the drivers seat. But the windscreen was vertical. Light. They needed to see. She remembered turning off the little light and tried to find it again. It wasn’t where it should be. Bashing at the walls she eventually found it on the ceiling and the van lit up. They had turned over. What was the wall, with a small sink and gas hob, was now the floor. She was standing on the window. Nick was wincing and holding his knees while Jerry was still standing awkardly staring around. Everyone was, miraculously, ok. Josh was hanging by his seatbelt still in the passenger seat but neither she or Nick had been wearing their seatbelt when the world had spun around them. She felt an overpowering need to phone her boyfriend, who was at home waiting for her.
“Where’s my phone? I, I need to phone Mike.” Her handbag which had been sitting open on the table in front of her had been thrown across the cabin and it took a minute of moving random items until she spotted it. Grasping it, she realised to phone Mike now would be pointless, she needed to deal with the situation before telling him anything.
Shaking, she realised she’d have to call 999. She’s never had to do it for herself before. She dialed the number and, with Jerry standing beside her white as a sheet, handed the phone to him.
“Where’s the smoke coming from?” The cabin was filled with a fine smoke, hazy orange in the light, and the smell of dust and friction was all around them. They needed fresh air. The window was now on the ceiling and with Nick’s help they managed to open it. It was a long way up and with nothing to stand on, they were going to have to get out somehow. Nick offered to get her out first. She refused, “I’m too heavy, you can help me out from up there.” Ignoring her he wrapped his arms around her legs and hauled her upwards but she couldn’t get a grasp on the slippery outside of the van.
“No, no.” He let her go and hauled himself up and out. Seeing how he did it, she grabbed the remains of her handbag and threw them onto the roof. Using the seatbelt mount as a foothold, she copied Nick and eased herself out onto the roof. Nick then bounced back down and started to gather stuff together to throw out onto the roof.
They had to get Josh out. He was still crying and she made murmuring noises to him while she crouched down on the roof to speak to Jerry and the others.
“I can’t get him out,” Jerry said mildly to her. He held her mobile to his head while the emergency services were asking him questions, at the same time working out how to free Josh without him falling into the van from his seatbelt entrapment. Between them, Nick and Jerry half caught, half helped Josh get out through his passenger window onto the roof. He met her up there in the cool night air. It was 1.30am. She was shaking all over and her breathing hadn’t quite returned to normal. She suddenly realised she could be hurt and started patting herself down, trying out her body. She could feel a sharp pain on her side, but nothing more than a bad bruise.
Standing on the roof of the van, which was actually the side, she could see a truck had stopped and someone was walking towards them. On the side of the road before him was a Volvo. What had happened?
Jerry then joined her on the roof.
“We were hit from behind, I couldn’t control it.” He said, making sure she was alright and seeing to his son. Then he lightly jumped down to the ground, missing the grass and rolled across the tarmac before springing back up again.
“Pass me down some stuff,” He said, holding his arms out. They had so much precious equipment with them, they were all worried about getting it safely out of the van. While Nick passed cases up to her on the roof, she lowered them down to Jerry. Then she remembered Mike. Getting her phone out she pondered for moment how this would sound to him. He picked up after a few rings.
“Hey baby!” His voice was relaxed and cheerful. “You ok?”
“No - “ she managed before her voice broke. She struggled to maintain control as she explained what had happened.
“We’ve had an accident. Someone crashed into the back of us and the van flipped over.” While he asked a hundred questions and expressed his relief at her safety, she realised there was so much more to do.
“I’ve got to go, I’ll phone you when I know more. I love you.”
“I love you.”
Looking around, she realised the man from the Volvo was wandering towards them. Crouching down again on the roof, she looked down at him. He was elderly and his white hair was surrounding his head like a halo. He was wearing a long dark trenchcoat and looked dazed.
“Were you parked?” he asked.
“No, we weren’t parked.” She wanted to scream at him. This was the guy who’d thrown their world upside down. He’d crashed into the back of them and he couldn’t even remember doing it. The police arrived, with ambulance and fire engines close behind. Suddenly their lights lit up the front of his Volvo, which, facing straight on, wasn’t visible in the half light. The front had been completely obliterated. The bonnet had pierced the windscreen and the engine was flattened. Amazingly, he too was unharmed. Here he was, standing in front of the tipped over van, looking up at the people on the top with nothing more than mild concern across his face.
The rest of the night passed in a surreal blur. They got all the kit out of the written off van through a back window. Nick’s knees were seen to and he was told he would just have to rest up for a few days. The man at fault was taken home by police and the crew waited by the roadside for Jerry’s wife who had kindly offered to collect them.
“We’re those people. Those people who sit on the side of the road.” She said to Nick, as the ambulance woman gave her a huge pile of blankets to snuggle up in. As the traffic they had stopped drove past the scene of the crash, the drivers and passengers gawped at them as they drove past. She waved back.
