I clutched my seat not knowing what was going to happen next. Just a normal day coming home from Target with my mom, and my life changed forever. My 12-year-old body sat in the passenger seat as my mom, and I came down Trevilian Way, jamming to music with the windows down, the cool breeze in our hair. We were enjoying the nice summer day.

The car suddenly came to a complete stop. I thought to myself, This isn’t right. We never stop here. I looked around while my mom kept her eyes on the road and the cars in front of her. I noticed a dented red car on the opposite side of the road with no one near it. I told my mom what I saw, and she started to question it too.

Traffic started to move again. As we came up to the light at the intersection, my mom and I saw cars everywhere, but not in between the white lines like they should have been. I noticed a pregnant lady at the crosswalk, unsteadily walking back and forth. I was trying to determine if she needed help or was causing the problem.

Before I knew it, I saw a guy walking in front of our car with a rock in his hand. When I say rock, I mean a basketball-size rock that someone had in their front yard as yard art. We quickly rolled up the windows. His face was fierce looking like he was very angry. I become nervous, my body trembling in fear! He then threw the rock at the windshield of the car beside us. Who knew he was going to throw it. I commented to myself. He went and got another rock and threw it, hitting a gentleman’s truck. The man in the truck tried to hit the rock thrower with his truck, but the rock thrower jumped out of the way. This seemed to make the crazy man even more angry, causing him to throw another rock at the gentleman’s truck.

My mom told me, “Don’t look at him. If he sees you looking at him, he is going to attempt to throw the rock at you.”

During all this my, mom was trying to get away and turn, but since it was an intersection, there were always cars coming and my mom never had the opportunity.

Then, I saw the guy with a rock come up to the passenger window. He is going to throw the rock at me, I thought to myself. I clutched my seat so hard, quivering inside. Meanwhile, my mom had her arm stretched across my chest in an effort to protect me.

I yelled to my mom, “Turn Mom! Turn now! Hurry!”

As he threw the rock at my window, my mom stepped on the gas, turned away, and called 911 immediately. We breathed a sigh of relief as we sped away from the chaotic scene.

Later that day, a police officer contacted my mom about her 911 call. She explained to the officer the ordeal and the event that happened.

The next day my mom was looking at police records to see if the man and woman had been arrested for their actions. I was downstairs in my room, still in shock over what had happened yesterday, replaying the scene in my head repeatedly. I heard my mom.

“Allie, come here, I need to ask you something.”

I ran up the steps, finding her in the living room with a computer in her lap.

“What do you want?” I asked.

“Isn’t this the guy who was throwing the rocks at the cars yesterday?” she questioned with curiosity.

“I think so. It looks like him. Look at the record,” I told her.

“The red car with the dent in it on the opposite side of the rode had supposedly been his. It looks like he has been arrested before and has multiple charges against him for yesterday, including drug use.”

“Wow!” I told my mom surprised.

The police report stated the couple was angry that their red car that had broken down a little way up the road. The man became angry and stated he threw the rocks because he thought people were trying to hit his pregnant wife with their car. The police report also stated the couple was on drugs.

My mom used this as further evidence for why to not do drugs. She informed me about the drugs altering one’s thought processes and making people act in ways they normally wouldn’t.

For the next week, I was still repeating the scene in my head. Today, I still hold my breath every time we come to that intersection. Who knew a traffic light could be so long? If my mom had not turned when she did, I would not be sitting here where I am today. The rock nearly changed my fate forever.