The Death Blog — Happy New Year

This is the eighth installment in the Death Blog series.

Happy New Year

Jason Lindley, 2.14am, Accident

The holiday season is always a bit of a downer. I spent the week after Christmas working nights ending with a double shift on New Year’s Eve/Day. Jason Lindley was my first cull on New Year’s Day. I had been working non-stop since 6 pm on New Year’s Eve and had already been vomited on four times.

At 2 in the morning, I was waiting around in the Taco Bell parking lot on West 117th. I picked up a Meximelt (no Fiesta Sauce) and sat on one of the cement parking space blocks in the back. I heard Jason a few seconds before I saw him. He was tearing up 117th on a black Suzuki. It was obviously new — shining like ink under the streetlights. He hit a patch of ice, spun like a top, and crashed gloriously into the front sign. The noise was almost unbearable but somehow managed to be beautiful. I walked up to the wreckage as I listened to employees inside Taco Bell screaming and shouting. A young girl with bad skin and a polyester shirt ran out, stopped short then high-tailed it back inside screaming “Call Nine One One!”

Jason was already standing up when I got to him. He was holding his head, staring down at his bike … and his body. I touched his elbow, watched his eyes flick in my direction then…