Jerry A. Goodson

This is a fictionalized version of a story that really happened. In my many travels, and online, I've met so many amazing people... and I've heard many amazing stories.

This one is certainly one to file under "You Can't Make This Up!"

I want to be absolutely clear: This story did NOT happen in my home state of Texas. I completely made up the names, locations, and changed some of the details, but the overall story is absolutely true.

Winter Rolling In

Rolling County Pennsylvania got its first snow tonight. The temperature was above freezing, but the wintry mix dumped so hard and fast that it took no time for the bridges to ice over. The roads gathered a slurry of snow, ice, and rain and didn't seem to be slickening up... but they were.

It had been a long slow shift in dispatch for Jessica. The weather rolled in at the very end of her shift, so she escaped before the dispatch center came alive. She preferred the busy shifts because it makes the time go by faster. She hated the eventless shifts that seemingly drag out forever. It's really weird how she comes home charged up after a busy shift, but comes home drained after a slow shift.

Naturally, Jessica was careful driving over the bridges, but she wasn't overly cautious about driving through the slush. She saw some hazard flashers ahead and slowed down out of habit. As she drove past a car that had run off the road, she wondered if she should continue her drive home or of she should spend the night at the fire station where she served as a volunteer emergency medical technician. She knew the fire department was going to be hopping tonight, and she just didn't feel up to it after the day she had, so she continued on home.

Continuing on, she watched the green lawns transforming into white under the street lights, and the black asphalt turning grey as the snow started accumulating. It was going to be a busy night for the county emergency services for sure.

Called In

Jessica pulled into her driveway and immediately saw the headlights of the patrol car lit up with white smoke coming out of the tail pipe. Her boyfriend, Jeff, was the night shift patrol sergeant for the sheriff's office, but Jessica was confused because it was his night off. Jeff being home factored heavily in Jessica's decision to come home instead of pulling a shift at the station.

Jeff was a "cop's cop". He was very well liked by everyone he worked with from the sheriff, to the chief deputy, to the guys under him, to the jailers and dispatchers. He worked at the sheriff's office longer than anybody else, to include the sheriff! Jeff and Jessica started dating not long after she started working at the sheriff's office just a little over two years earlier, and that surprised everyone for a few reasons. Jeff wasn't divorced for six months and he's already moving someone else in, and Jeff was forty five... Jessica was twenty. Jeff's son was Jessica's age for crying out loud, and his daughter was only four years younger!

Jessica walked into the house and filled her nostrils with the smell of Jeff's cologne mixed with the shower steam. She always loved that aroma, but it only came when he was leaving. He told her that one of his guys called in sick, so he was going in to cover the shift. Jessica would be relegated to cuddling with his pillow tonight.

No matter. Jessica was tired so she changed into her pajamas and turned on the television as Jeff went out the door.

Called Out

Jessica flipped through channels for a while, but nothing caught her fancy. Her eyes were heavy enough that she decided to just crash. She lied in bed thinking of what she wanted to do tomorrow since she was off, and Jeff was going to be sleeping. She was accounting for everything, to include the weather that came in tonight as she drifted off into unconsciousness.

She was asleep for all of about twenty minutes when her cellphone came alive. She missed the first call as she was just coming back into the world from dream land, but she answered the second time around. The shift captain on the fire department asked her to respond directly to a crash scene... in her personal vehicle... which NEVER happens!

Jessica grabbed her EMT uniform out of the clean laundry basket and threw it on in record time. She slipped on the steps a little as she rushed to her car, which was a reminder to her that she needed to drive a little more carefully than usual. The crash scene was only five miles away from her house, but it took her ten minutes to get there. She arrived to a sea of flashing red and blue emergency lights. Two fire departments emptied their stations responding to this call. Jessica was confused as to why SHE was called out when there was obviously plenty of people there.

Road Head

Jessica observed a single-vehicle crash. It was plain to see the car ran off the road and hit the concrete pillar of a bridge overpass. There was an older white male sitting in the driver seat without any apparent serious injury.

She started walking through all of the firefighters and deputies to get a closer look at the crash victim when the fire captain came up to her.

"This is a sensitive situation," he started telling her. "There's a girl with his 'member' in her mouth because he's pinned against the steering wheel, and her head is under it." Jessica looked at him like he was stupid, but before she could ask why he called her out when there were plenty of other people there to cut them out, he cut her off, "It's Stacy. It's Jeff's daughter."

Everybody on scene knew Stacy, with most of them claiming to having a part in raising her! Jessica started looking around frantically. "Where's Jeff!?"

The captain told her he called dispatch, and they said Jeff had just cleared a call and should be arriving in about five to ten minutes. They didn't call Jessica there to help with Stacy, they called her there to help with Jeff because he was NOT going to be happy!

Jessica was close enough to see the driver, but she couldn't see Stacy. The driver was old... much older than Stacy. Jessica wanted to know why Stacy would be blowing this old perv. The fire captain told Jessica what the old man told him. Stacy wanted the new iPhone 15 that had just come out and he told her "no." She said she would do something "special" for him if he would get her one, and she started servicing him.

Jessica heard Jeff check out on scene with dispatch. She turned around and saw his patrol car approaching. She started walking toward him as he got out. Before she could say anything, Jeff saw the driver. He yelled out, "DAD!" and started running towards the wreck.

A couple of deputies grabbed him to keep him from running to the window and seeing everything. They were in shock as they started processing who they are just now figuring out who the driver really was!

Jessica made it to Jeff and asked him if he knew the driver. "Yes! He's my dad! Is he okay???"

Jessica reassured him he was fine. The two deputies holding him back, along with everybody else on scene who heard him cry out, were completely stunned.

Everybody knew Stacy, but nobody knew Jeff's father... not even Jessica.

Continuing On

This story has yet to be concluded...