The Jerry Story

My friends know about Jerry, Jerry is the person to blame for accidents

Jerry also does not exist, he is a character that came out of nowhere.

When an accident happens, there is a harmless curiosity about how the accident was caused whether it was an accident...or someone just doesn't know how to drive. We've all heard of that one person that can't be trusted with cars.

The first time this came up was when my friend came to visit me for an anime convention, for a little bit of background about my background I live in a town in Virginia that is normally very quiet, (My area does get bad drivers, but then again there are bad drivers everywhere)

After my friend and engorged in sushi, we went on a supply run for the convention we were selling our art at. It was nice to be able to show my friend this part of Virginia that he never experienced.

The town I live in is so normal that it could outdo the normal setting on the washing machine. It just had to be this one particular night there were so many accidents and chaos that it debunked the way I described my hometown. Everywhere we went there was a cop or a firetruck, It was almost as if it was a reenactment of the final chase scene from The Blues Brothers.

"I bet Jerry did this again," I said with a New York/New Jersey accent.

It had my friend laughing to make this hectic situation very humourous.

Anytime we saw a cop car or a fire truck, I said that it was Jerry’s fault. Both of us added to the story.

"Jerry, that motherf**ker, he is no good to his wife or the kids!" My friend said.

"Exactly girl! Shirley deserves so much better!" I said.

“Girl, Shirley puts up with so much shit from Jerry, she doesn't need him!” My friend said.

Jerry continued to get a backstory about his wife Shirley, Jerry has two kids named Jerry Jr. and Carolina. How Jerry is always late picking up the kids from school because he always has a car accident every time he goes out. We also made an answer to the story that Paulie the mechanic is a much better guy than Jerry.

“Girl she needs to leave him for Paulie!” I said, starting to get the hang of talking in the double bilingual accent of New Jersey and New York.

“Girl she does!” My friend said.

Making this story up gave me a lot of ease, adding something comedic to what normally is a very serious situation to be stuck in traffic and not knowing where you’re going and feeling alarmed about seeing all the sirens, making up the story out of nowhere had helped me feel better about touring my friend as I’m driving a car that I’m normally not very comfortable driving, I used to drive a Ford Taurus which I called, “the tank”.

Before picking up my friend, I had only gotten my driver's license for almost a year. I had a lot of driving anxiety, I only stayed on roads that weren't too bad in traffic so I wouldn't panic if I had to make a quick decision.

With the arrival of my friend, I had to be prepared to expand my radius of where I normally didn't drive to. Making up a character like Jerry had put me at ease to be comedic and make me feel comfortable and get over my driving anxiety. I have to give him credit that he was an inadvertent part of helping me be a confident driver.

On Saturday, after a successful day for our art business at the convention, we went out to Subway for dinner and did some shopping. We finished the last of our adventures at Wal-Mart, we tossed our new trinkets in the back seat of the Taurus Ford and headed out. Right as I was making a right turn to take backway out of Wal-Mart, a firetruck was ben

"Jerry is such a f*ck up, she needs to leave him for Paulie."

My friend added to that, "Yes, she needs to leave him for Paulie."

I laughed and said, "Paulie is such a stand-up guy, always caring for Jerry Jr and Caroline."

We joked and said that this needs to be a show pitched to the Showtime network.

After my friend went back to New York, Jerry became a part of my driving routine. So whenever I was alone in my car and I saw a cop car or a firetruck I would just say-

“I bet Jerry’s in there."

"Jerry, it's 2 in the afternoon and you've already caused three accidents!"

Jerry, you are gonna be late picking up the kids!"

I would laugh to myself at the comedic nature of this story, feeling the stress simmer away. I continued this story with the imagination of the scene to continue with even saying something for the EMTs like, "Jerry you are in here every Friday!"

The traffic and driving anxiety got easier and easier with the story of Jerry to help me.

On occasion, I'd still text my friend about Jerry.

Me: Jerry is at it again on the road

Him: F**king Jerry!

Jerry's Story has been told to my friends so they would know why I would randomly scream and rant about a guy they don't know about. Some of them have gone along with the story and ranted about Jerry whenever we pass by a cop car or an ambulance.

Jerry's story was a healthy distraction from the driving anxiety, screaming his name for the story I created for him would relieve me of the tension I got from driving. Gradually, I didn't have to scream Jerry's name anymore as I got to the point of driving that I could go anywhere without anxiety.

Jerry's a terrible man, and he always will be. But his story lives on forever.