Ellison & Ninety-nine More.

Six years ago, in a small town on a bright stretch of the highway right before I was to start my first year of college, I lost my best friend to a drunk driver. My life did a complete 180 because a man decided to get behind the wheel after he clearly had had too many and not care that he putting not only his life but also the lives of those on the road in danger too. Two hours before the accident James and I had been sitting on my front porch, drinking a soda and arguing about books, as we were prone to do. It was early summer and the days were long and bright. He had decided that he wanted to read all the books on Radcliffe’s Rival 100 Best Novels List (http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/radcliffes-rival-100-best-novels-list/) and had spent the last month trying to convince me to read them too. I had help firm to my stand that I did not want a reading list and would read whatever I left like reading that day though I somehow always ended up reading the next book on the list, despite my loud protests.

He had just finished reading #24 “Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison” and was telling me all the reasons I should read it. I had grabbed it from him and skimmed a few pages but did not find anything in it to hold my interest. We were tired of arguing about the book and decided to head to a bigger town to see a movie. I told him to take the book with him because I was not interested and then went inside to tell my parents where I was going. In all my hurry, I forgot the phone I had just gotten for my birthday and left it sitting on the porch. Twenty miles out of town, James and I were driving along, listening to music and singing at the top of our lungs. We were pulling off the exit when a car came barreling down the exit towards us, going the wrong way. James swerved to try to avoid it but could not. The other car hit us head on, going 60 MPH and pushed us into the concrete divider. Even though I was wearing a seatbelt (we both were), I was thrown out of the car about 15 feet and landed on the side of the road. James was still in the car but had absorbed so much impact that he was crushed and killed instantly.

I was flown to the hospital and spent 10 days in a medically induced coma. When I finally woke up, I didn’t remember anything about the accident. James’s older sister, who had babysat me, my siblings and James for years, asked to be the one to tell me that James had died. I missed James’s funeral and wasn’t allowed to go to this grave until almost a month after the accident after I had been released from rehab. When I finally got home, I saw the “Invisible Man” sitting on my bed, along with my phone. I didn’t want to look at the book because it reminded me so much of him and threw it in the corner. I looked at my phone and myriad of messages from friends and started deleting them all. The very last message had been sent on the day of the accident, about an hour before. It was from James saying, “I know you’re going to read it. Why do you bother fighting me because I know you better than you do”?

That was the last message I ever got from James but it became the turning point for me. It took me a few days but I picked up the “Invisible Man” and read it. His family asked me if I wanted anything of his and I asked for his books, which no one else wanted. I ended up with boxes and boxes filled with books, inside which I found 58 of the 100 hundred books on the Radcliffe’s list. I started reading them and finished all 100 in less than a year. When college started, I switched majors from Psychology and Pre-Law to English and Education degree. I graduated 2 years ago and am teaching high school English now. I’ve challenged my incoming junior class to read all the 100 books before they graduate and this year I had my first student who accomplished that. It was the best feeling the world because for a moment there I knew exactly how proud James must have felt when he saw me reading the books after all his persuasion.