Your True Tales
April 2005 – Page 13

Heavy Metal Concert Angel
by Ma

In the summer of 1997, my son, Dave and two of his friends went to a heavy metal Metallica concert. Dave was designated driver so his friends could drink. They had a great time and started for home. The owner of the car, Tim, refused to hand Dave the keys, insisting he was sober enough to drive. Dave went along with Tim's demand to drive against everything he was taught.

Then a stranger approached them, asking if they were headed back to our city and could he please ride with them. Pick up a stranger at a metal concert? No way! My son was shocked to hear that they would give this young man dressed in white a ride home. Tim, behind the wheel, Link in the front passenger seat and Dave and the stranger in the back seat, Dave behind Link.

They got on the highway heading for home, when Tim started drifting to the right and going off the pavement. Dave told Tim to watch out, and he jerked the wheel, over-correcting and went left of center hitting another car head on. Dave and Link were thrown from the car, went over a lane of traffic, a gravel burm and a guardrail, only to land on soft grass.

I was called to the hospital -- a parent's worst nightmare. I arrived to find my son and his friends hysterical because the stranger was not found. They thought the man in white was taken to another hospital, and no one at the hospital would give any information about the stranger's condition. I, being persistent and "the Ma," demanded an explanation as to why this other young man's injuries were being kept a secret. The doctors couldn't say and the paramedics and police looked at me as though I was nuts.

The police and paramedics assured me there was only Dave, Tim and Link in the car... even the witness statements say three men. No one had seen a fourth young man dressed in white. There was no fourth person in the car! Dave said the young man was very quiet in the car and had a smell about him, something he couldn't quite place. The only injuries my son had, was a minor bloody nose. Tim needed three stitches in his chin and Link had a few scratches on his face. Tim's car was totaled. The car was so mangled, it looked like no one could have survived that accident.

My son asked, "Ma! Who was that stranger? The man in white? Where did he go?" The only answer I had was, "An angel, Dave... an angel."

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