God Can Touch Me at Any Time(Gordon England) I have written numerous long, detailed stories about my brushes with death. The number is up to ten or eleven close calls so far. I am unsure how many, but I know I've received bonus lives past nine. I will know the exact number someday when I hit my wall.

Here is a story of how the good Lord can reach down and touch anyone without warning.

I drove along Interstate 10 in Fort Worth during rush hour in 1980. Though cars filled the road, motorists maintained their speeds at 80 mph as they tailgated each other. I followed a mid-sized truck with tools, lumber scraps, and trash in the open back end. Drivers jockeyed for vacant spaces between cars around me, splitting my concentration between my driving and crazy drivers.

The truck ahead of me hit a pothole in the road, causing assorted debris to fly from the truck bed. My attention turned to what else might discharge from the speeding waste dump.

"Damn," I said as a wooden pallet bounced around the truck's rear. This could turn out bad.

My world went into slow motion when a gust of wind lifted the four-foot square of lumber and sent it spinning like a Frisbee at my car. Its path made a direct line at my windshield at my head height.

Still in slow motion, with no time to check my blind spot mirrors, I swerved hard to the right and started into a slide. The swirling pallet of death passed my left window, smashed into the pavement, and shattered to pieces, sending automobiles swerving. Horns honked as I fishtailed several times before straightening out.

My heart pounded as after-the-fact fear kicked in. A fast reaction without thinking saved me again. That was way too close for comfort. I slowed for the rest of my drive home.

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