Kelly: "I've been in an accident. I'm fine. I'm down at the end of your street, but my phone is about to die. I need a phone."
Madison and I immediately jumped up and proceeded to put on shoes to head to the rescue. We weren't sure what had happened, but we knew we were needed. My husband stood and watched us as we frantically ran around the house gathering up items we thought we might need.
Tom: "What happened?"
Madison: "I don't exactly know, but she needs a phone."
Tom: "But what happened?"
Me: "She was in an accident!"
Tom: "What kind of an accident?"
Madison: "She didn't say, Dad. We'll know when we get there."
Tom: "Why wouldn't she tell you?"
Madison: "She was a little frazzled."
Me: "Who cares? Her text says she was in an accident that involved kids and she has a flat tire. We have to get to her."
Tom: "Well, we should think this through for a minute..."
We left him thinking things through and hiked out into the darkness. Kelly had sent me a text stating she was one street over. She had told Madison she was at the end of our street. Apparently, I must have been a bit frazzled too because instead of going down our road and cutting to the next street if we didn't see her I made Maddy walk the opposite direction and walk down the street she had told me she was on. It took a bit longer.
As we got more than halfway down the street I didn't see a car at all. I started to panic a bit, but Maddy was very calm. She assured me that we would find her and that no flashing lights was a good thing. We finally saw the car on the main street, pulled over on the side of the road halfway between my street and the street we were on. Her emergency lights were flashing in the darkness and she was digging around in the backseat of her car.
When she left my house to head home her car had been pointed in the direction that Madison and I had walked to get her which meant that she exited my neighborhood from one street over. She had been about to turn out of my hood and was looking left, right, and she started to go as she looked left again. Out of the darkness, on the side of the road coming toward her at a fast speed were three kids, one on a bike, one on a skateboard, and one on a scooter. They were going to hit her and so she turned the wheel to the right and went up on the curb and over the concrete drainage barrier that juts out of the side of the street. Because her car sits low she scraped the concrete putting a huge dent in the underside of her car. She hit the corner of the barrier and immediately her front passenger side tire deflated. The kids managed to stop their forward progress before they hit her. They did not speak and went around her and on their merry way.
While she appeared calm on the outside when we arrived she was attempting to call her insurance carrier by using her registration card instead of her insurance card. Madison and I found the number and Kelly spent considerable time trying to reach a human. Once the information was processed and a tow truck sent to rescue her she took a breath.
Kelly: "Thank you for the phone. You guys don't have to wait. It will be 45 minutes. I'll be fine."
Me: "Okay, then. We will head home and go to bed. I mean, really, Kelly."
I insisted we move away from the road as not to get hit since that seems to be a daily story in our newspaper: person killed while helping a stranded motorist. I went to sit in the entrance way to our neighborhood, but Madison thought it too close to the road and un-seeable for entering drivers. We stood instead by our large, concrete entrance signs and stared out into the night. Kelly told us that one truck driver had stopped in the middle of the road and had gotten out to see if she was fine. She had thought it was my husband and had yelled at him for stopping in the middle of the road. He acknowledged that he wasn't my husband and that he wanted to make sure she wasn't hurt. She assured him she was fine and he had driven off. We discussed the good Samaritan, but by this time I was looking around for a place to sit as I knew my back would start protesting after standing for 45 minutes.
There were two decorative rocks by the concrete signs and Madison and I sat down. Kelly was pacing. We reminded her that she had a beach lounger in her trunk, but she thought that a bit too much. She did remember that she had a folding lawn chair and so she dug that out and sat down. We were sure we looked a sight sitting on the side of the road after midnight.
We watched cars whiz by us and commented on the amount of traffic after midnight. An ambulance came by and stopped. We waved them on. A city police car came by. He did not stop although he seemed to let up off the gas a bit. The neighbors on the opposite corner where we sat returned home and peered out at us. They did not speak, but hid behind their car peering out from around it. We talked loudly about a tow truck and the fact that I lived in the neighborhood. They went inside.
I texted my husband to let him know that the tow truck was on its way. He texted back asking if we need anything. I suggested water, chairs, and a porta-potty. He told me to come home and tell the tow truck driver to call when he got there. We didn't do this because the insurance company had told Kelly to wait with the vehicle. My husband did not appear with any of the items requested.
We discussed all of the people killed assisting broken down vehicles. We discussed whether or not we should move the car forward into my street or backwards into the street we sat on. We wondered whether this was feasible on a flat tire or whether it would do more damage. Kelly kept getting up and going over to her car messing around in the trunk, opening doors while in the street, and staring at the flat tire. I would yell at her to get away from the car as cars whizzed past her. I made comments about someone hitting the car and us getting hit by debris. Madison laughed at both of us.
Kelly: "Do you think we should move it?"
Me: "How is the tow truck driver going to change the flat? Where will he park?"
Kelly: "I'm assuming he will park it behind or in front of my car on the side."
Me: "It all just seems dangerous to me. No one cares about a car on the side of the ride. Look at that guy. Slow down buddy!"
Kelly: "Stop yelling. If someone hits my car I'll get the insurance money and buy a better one."
Me: "Good point."
Kelly: "So? Should I move the car?"
Me: "Let's just wait until the guy gets here. He's a man. He'll tell us what to do. Let's wait until the man gets here and tells us women what to do!"
That was an inside joke in our family. My mother spent her entire life trying to prove that women were as good as men. It pissed her off to no end that she couldn't participate in sports when she was a kid because girls didn't play sports then. She was constantly giving us teaching moments. Once when my brother was young he had to testify in a case that involved his teacher and a guy who came on to school property while my brother and his class were at recess. For days my father grilled my brother on saying, "Yes, sir" and "No, sir" to the judge when he was spoken to. When my brother finally got on the stand the judge was a woman and my brother, following my dad's instructions, said, "No, sir" and "Yes, sir." She and her golfing ladies were always making fun after an incident of which I've forgotten now, saying, "We will wait until a man tells us what to do". It was a saying she and I would use often.
Kelly: "That's a good point. We will wait until the man tells us what to do."
Madison: "I'm not sure this is a good lesson that you two are teaching me here."
The tow truck driver appeared after an hour. He was a she. She pulled up behind the car, hopped right out of her big truck with an Ipad, and after getting Kelly's signature she grabbed her equipment and went to work changing the tire.
Kelly: "My friend writes a blog. Everything goes on it. That's why she's taking pictures."
Me: "Especially because Kelly always provides me with car repair entries."
Her: "Well, okay then. How exciting."
She was fast. She jacked up the car, took off the flat tire, and had the donut on the car in record time although I did not time her. As she worked we discussed the time we attempted a tire change (you can read that HERE), but realized as we talked that we had not been successful in that venture. We had had to call a man. The tow truck driver snorted.
Me: "It's probably a good thing Madison is here watching a woman successfully change a tire since we really haven't been the best role models in the car repair department."
Madison: "I've learned quite a bit tonight."
The tire had a huge hole in it and we could stick our fingers in it. Our savior finished her job and dusted off her pants. We thanked her and she waited until Kelly was in her car and moving off the side of the road. Madison and I waved her off and started walking toward home. As we got to our street someone came up behind us.
Tom: "Where's Kelly? Where's the car?"
Apparently he was done thinking things through. It was after one o'clock. We ignored him and kept right on walking. This was one time we hadn't needed a man and we certainly didn't need him now.
1 comment:
That Kelly sounds very heroic
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