It was an unusually warm fall evening. I had just gotten a call from a buddy. He had just landed an excellent job and was throwing a party; everyone was coming. There would be burgers, ribs, beer, and of course some mj in both herb and brownie form. There was also an array of other illegal narcotics. I didn't really bother too much with the harder stuff, and there was no real hard stuff, just some cocaine, speed, pain pills.
I got along good with most people there and it wasn't long before I was being offered some pills and cocaine. I resisted at first, being content with my brownie, a few joints, and a few beers. After a couple hours I was getting pretty bogged down. It was still pretty early, but the brownie and 6 beers were starting to kick my ass, so I decided to kick back with a few lines of coke. A few snorts and I was back up in the conga line. It was a sunday though, so we got started pretty early, and were pretty burnt out before it got really late.
When the party finally winded down it was time to go home. My buddy tried to take my keys and offered me a bed to stay in, but I declined. I just can't seem to settle down and get comfortable at someone elses house. If I packed my bags and was planning a trip then I am fine, but as an impromptu drunken hotel...i'm just not able to relax. If I can just make it 10 miles home I will have my own bed and my own tv. And the biggest factor, I won't have to do it in the morning, so I can relax. If I am somewhere else I feel like I have to get home before I can fully relax.
So I head out the door to make that 10 mile journey at about 2am. Immediately after pulling out I realize this is a mistake. I had slight double vision so i had to do the pirate eye back home. I tried to keep mostly to side streets, but there is a fairly major road I needed to take for about 2 miles before I could begin meandering down side streets again. About a mile down the road and BAM I hit a pedestrian. I swerved to the left, then back to the right. I could see the person laying in the street in my rear view. I knew if I stopped to help that the police would follow shortly and I knew I would have gone to jail. Besides hitting the pedestrian I was also drunk, high, on numerous other drugs, and operating an automobile. So I continued home. I was so drunk I had actually forgotten about the pedestrian.
The next day I woke up and saw that my right front fender was dented, then I remembered what happened. I went back to the scene but by that time everything was gone. I called my buddy that does body repair and had him fix my car off the books, so there was no insurance claim and also no paper work to tie me to an accident. I needed it fixed - I couldn't drive around with a large pedestrian shaped dent on my car. I just told him I had hit a deer and wanted it fixed without involving my insurance company or filing a police report.
I never told anyone about the incident. About a week later I was watching the news and saw that police were looking for information about a fatal hit and run on the same stretch of road, on the same night. I thought it was a crazy coincidence, and it took a full 10-15 seconds to actually sink in and hit me. When it did it hit me like a ton of bricks. I felt sick to my stomach. My appetite decreased. I was scared. I was paranoid. I was freaked out for a couple weeks at least. After a couple weeks though things started to settle down. They obviously had no leads and no way to connect me to the crime - or even suspect I was involved. A few more weeks went by and I was able to fully let my guard down and resume life as normal.
That was almost 3 years ago, and to this day I still won't drive when i'm drunk. I drive stoned, but not drunk.
