My Personal Miracle? Think of the Possibilities! - One Night in 1985

This story is absolutely true, and though it may seem like a coincidental stroke of unbelievable good luck to anyone who may have witnessed it (no-one did), I have lived with the memory of this incident for more than 25 years. I still get goose bumps every time I turn it over in my mind.

Now let's see... it was a summer night in 1985, I had been out with my brother and his friends. Toward the late evening it became obvious that he and his bosom buddy were anxious to get somewhat closer to their female companions. If I was feeling like a fifth wheel earlier in the day, I definitely felt that way now! We were parked at a popular spot where there was plenty of saffron lighting due to the streetlamps burning at a fairly moderate strength. Rather romantic for those who had female company.

As midnight came and went, and the streets became quiet and devoid of all traffic, I became really uncomfortable for the obvious reason, being in a car with two couples who were becoming increasingly "frisky" for want of a better word. I decided to take a walk to the all night store located about 20 minutes walk away. Being young (19 years old) and reckless, in familiar territory and with fairly well lit streets I figured going for that walk to top up on cigarettes and something to eat posed virtually no danger at all. I was mistaken.

As I turned the first corner and entered a road perfectly named "Broad Road", I had walked about 30 meters when a low guttural growl pricked up my ears. Behind the garden wall of one of the houses lining the roadside to my left, a large black dog was watching me with ever growing interest. A Panic washed over me a course in miracles  rivaled the heat of that humid summer night. However I was not going to make it worse by running. Instead I gently crossed the road in a diagonal path and continued walking at a steady pace toward the top of the road where the all night store was located, being careful not to increase my walking speed, with my ardent spectator still leering at me from behind his garden wall, still growling.

I reached the shop safely, bought my cigarettes and a few other small items, and was then contemplating my dilemma. Which way back?

After much thought(5 minutes), I decided that taking a detour through the side streets to get back posed more danger, since those streets were poorly lit, and it was past 1 am in the morning already. I decided to brave the inevitable and head back the same way, on the "safe" side of the street of course. As I approached the section of road in line with my new admirers' house, he was on cue with his growling and I wondered why the hell he couldn't just find something else to do, perhaps at the back of the property. But then everything changed, with a thunderous bark he cleared the garden wall in one long legged bound, and stood watching me in all his terrifying splendor. This was no ordinary dog, this was a horse disguised as a dog! There was no-one around, I was all alone, and this enormous, hungry looking, salivating canine was about to come for me, a scrawny, unfit, cigarette-smoking 19 year old. What were my chances?

As I tried to maintain an even pace of walking, he made advances to come on over. I know that despite trying to remain calm and appear nonchalant, I was starting to talk to myself. Could I make a run for it? He would catch me with no effort. Could I fight him off? Who was I kidding? Broad Road may be broad, but this night it wasn't nearly broad enough.

I know I started praying at that time, literally begging forgiveness for being such a reckless waste of time, choosing to be out at all hours of the night. (My parents were old school and definitely god-fearing). I prayed every prayer I could remember interspersed with personal pleas for some kind of help, he was seconds away.

At some point I stopped walking, standing as if rooted to the spot, I could feel the beads of perspiration running down my legs inside my trousers (No it was really perspiration!). I had given up at that point; there was nothing I could possibly do. Then it happened.

A car turned out from the main road into Broad Road. The "mutant-dog" was so fixated with me he didn't even notice it. He was ambling along at a steady pace heading straight toward me. There were a few meters of parking area in front of the row of houses before the actual road begins, and that's right where he was now.

It was as if time had slowed down to a trickle, I watched in frozen disbelief as he stepped out just a little too far to avoid being hit, I heard the breaking of glass as his huge head connected with the headlight and he toppled over in yelping shock like a tree that had just been felled.

Without stopping the car continued in the direction from where I had just come, while the dog cried in pain and drunkenly got up, shocked and disoriented, and decided to run as best he could after it, weaving slightly from side to side. I watched them both disappear into the darkness.

I stood at that spot for about a minute more before quickly walking the last short distance back to where the car was parked, stood outside and lit up a smoke, inhaling deeply and not saying a word, thoughts racing through my head as I tried to digest what had just happened.

Now still as fresh in my mind as the night it happened, I can tell you how, with the benefit of maturity and hindsight, I tried to make sense of it. I asked myself the following kinds of questions-:

· There were no cars on the road in the area before or after the incident, so where did that car come from?

· If the car came from outside of the immediate area, how many traffic signals had to go green at precisely the right time to put the car there at that exact moment?

· Who was driving the car, and what put him in the position to want to drive at that time of the early morning?

· I prayed for all that I was worth, but realistically I cannot say that I was expecting some form of physical help, there was nothing and no-one around, I was not going to survive the night.