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Prom night and indestructible teenagers

By RICK RYCKELEY
Contributing Writer

You know you’re getting older when you are on a first-name basis with an orthopedic surgeon. This time the office visit was due to a hip injury; seems somehow I’ve worn mine out.

During the exam, we started to talk about the joys of having teenagers in the house, and he told me of a medical study just completed about them. Why anyone would want to study teenagers I don’t know, but the doc had a sharp object in his hand so I didn’t want to provoke him. As he approached me with the needle, I listened intently to what he had to say.

The study concerned the MRIs of 16-25 year-olds, and they determined that the frontal lobe of teenagers doesn’t fully develop until they reach age 25. This is the area of the brain that controls emotions and risk-taking. You mean teenagers take unneeded risks and are immature emotionally? I could’ve told him that even without all those MRIs. Could’ve told him that the undeveloped frontal lobe is also the area of the brain which controls teenagers not cleaning their rooms and not bring down their dirty clothes, but I didn’t want to irritate him. He still had the big needle in his hand.

Warning: This story is very timely, but it’s far from being funny. Funny will return next week; serious is here this week. The following is based on a poem titled “Moonlight Ride” by an unknown author.

Across our county, every weekend in April and May, high schools hold their junior/senior proms. If you have prom-age children at your house, give them this article to read. Hopefully, they will make the right choices on their special night and avoid a tragedy like this one.

Jenny was so happy about the new house her family had found. For once in her life, she was going live on the “right side” of town and besides, her dad had just bought them a new golf cart to ride around. She picked out her room and moved her things in, thinking, “It’s great finally having a room all to myself and not having to share. In a couple of weeks, school will start, and I can have sleep-overs and maybe even go to parties now that I’m in high school.”

During the first seven months of school, Jenny made a lot of new friends, got good grades and everything was going fine. Then prom came around. Jenny got a date, and for the first time in her life, she was going be popular. Jenny was going out with the star of the football team. The only problem was her parents had said she was too young to date a senior. She had to think of something.

“I know,” she thought. “I just won’t tell them the truth. I’ll tell them that I’m staying with friends. They’ll believe that.”

Jenny talked to her parents, and reluctantly they agreed that she could sleep over at her friend’s house Friday night. Excitedly, she got ready for her date, but she felt a little guilty she had lied. She thought, “What’s the harm in a nice dinner, a prom dance, and maybe even a moonlight ride?”

Friday night Jenny went out on her date. The dinner was wonderful; the prom she would remember the rest of her life; but the moonlight ride - well, it would just have to wait. Tim, her date, was drinking and wasn’t ready to leave. Tim got drunk on three beers and one glass of wine, and when it was time to go, he didn’t realize that he was too drunk to drive. Indestructible teenagers usually don’t. Tim and Jenny took their moonlight ride to the lake; that’s where Tim tried to make a pass. Jenny said, “No,” and asked him to take her home.

Tim got mad and floored the gas. In a few seconds, they were going much too fast. Jenny pleaded for him to stop and let her out as they neared town. But Tim just drove faster, never slowing down.

Jenny prayed, “I’ll tell my parents that I lied. I’ll tell them I really went to a party and out for a moonlight ride.  Just let me get home alive.”

There was a bright flash! But poor Jenny didn’t remember what happened next because of the force of the impact.

She felt someone reach in, pulling on her to remove her from the twisted wreckage; she heard someone else yell, “Call for another ambulance,” and in a weak voice add, “Oh my God, this one’s bad. There’s another car over there, with two people still trapped inside.”

Jenny awoke in the hospital to the voice of the ER doctor. “Jenny, you’ve been in a crash, and it’s bad.” She thought she heard someone say that Tim was dead. “Jenny, we’ve done all that we can, but it looks like we’ll lose you, too.”

Weakly, she asked, “What about the people in the other car?  Are they okay?”  She thought she heard someone say that the two people in the other car had also died.

Jenny said, “Doctor, please tell their families that I’m sorry. I just wanted a little fun. If I could return their loved ones to them, I would. Tell my mom and dad I’m sorry that I lied. It’s my fault that so many have died.”

The doctor just held Jenny’s hand as she slowly slipped away. Not saying a word. The nurse couldn’t believe how uncompassionate he was, so she asked, “Doctor Bob, why didn’t you grant that girl her last request? Why won’t you tell her mom and dad she was sorry she lied?”

The doctor turned away. His face stricken with grief, he replied, “Nurse, they wouldn’t have heard. Jenny’s mom and dad were the ones who died in the other car."

On prom night this year I hope that some of you will think twice before getting behind a wheel drunk or without wearing a seat belt. Believe it, you’re not indestructible. Have fun, make the right choices and above all, please be safe. We have lost too many young folks already.