Car wreck

It was a warm Saturday afternoon, and I was in the living room reading and waiting for the dryer to stop while my wife was in the kitchen planning supper. The baby was asleep, Jacob was playing with Legos, and our 4 year old Joel was driving my truck and getting in a wreck. We had seen Joel a few minutes earlier walking through the house. The garage door leading from the laundry room to the garage was open and my wife asked me rather casually where my black truck was parked. I told her it was in the garage where it always was, but she responded with "You must have parked it somewhere else, since it is not there." This was followed by a unison, "Where's Joel?"

At that point, we heard a car horn and both ran from the kitchen through the laundry room, into the garage and outside where we saw the black truck with the emergency lights flashing. It was across the street facing our house with the back bumper smashed against a parked car. There were cars on either side of the truck that had stopped to see the wreck and find out why a truck was perpendicular to the street and blocking traffic.

In the driver's seat and looking very happy was a 4 year old autistic boy named Joel Tucker with his hands on the steering wheel. Apparently he had crawled in the truck, released the parking brake, turned on the emergency lights and rolled backward out of the garage, down the driveway, across the street and ended against a parked car.

After settling down the people who were getting out of their vehicles and convincing one lady that I am not the worst father on the planet and then routing traffic around the truck, I proceeded to promise the owner of the car who came out of his house after hearing the ruckus that we would pay for the repair. Meanwhile, my wife carried Joel back in the house and I returned the truck to the garage and things began to settle down once again.

The car repair was $300 along with several apologies. Also, we began closing the garage door more often. In retrospect, we have wondered several things about that incident. How did Joel pull it off? How did he escape injury? How did he get out of our sight that quickly?

Joel's lack of social awareness and his unique approach to the world in which we live give him his own personal goals that are different from most people's. His is a special world and a beautiful world--a world without danger and without suspicion and without fear. Unfortunately, the real world is a scary place. Yet for all the potential challenges, Joel is a lucky boy! The angels around him work hard but it is always worth it.