Feeling Gravity's Pull

In a split second of terrible clarity, I saw the boys face, eyes wide and terrified, before I heard him screaming. I stomped on the brakes, bringing the car to a lurching stop. But not before I could hear - could feel - something scraping. He was under the car.

Things went into fast-blur adrenaline mode at that point. I could hear someone yelling "Back up! Back up!" In reverse, easing the car backwards, hoping nobody was too close behind me because I didn't have time to check. An onlooker screams for me to stop.

I want to get this down before it starts to deteriorate in the onslaught of everyday life, especially in the Holiday season. Already it's even starting to seeming less real.

Jumping out of the car and running to the front now. He was a little kid, and was yelling, "Get the car off! I'm stuck! Get it off!" His leg was pinned between the car's bumperskirt and his bike, and couldn't go forward or back. I started lifting the bumper, and one of the bystanders helped, so we could lift the car enough and he could get his leg out. I didn't want to watch him try to walk; instead I watched someone pull the bike out too. The boy was standing on the sidewalk now, kind of not-crying. IN the way that sheer terror can leave you not-crying, when someone brought his bike over, he held it like it was helping to hold him up.

Mercifully, no one was injured, nothing tragic. The boy, Brandon, needs his bike fixed. A bystander called the cops, the officer reported the incident, I missed my taekwondo practice, and both Brandon and I were supremely terrified for a couple of minutes.

He was riding at night, without a light, and zipped out off the sidewalk just when I started easing my car forward to turn right on a red light; I was looking for traffic, not pedestrians.

As we waited for the officer to show, he was eager to go home; I suspect that he may have been late for home. He confessed that this was his third time being hit by a car (tough kid) and when we wanted to call his parents, revealed that they had no phone. Ouch. He added that they couldn't afford to fix his bike. Double ouch (I gave him my number and told him to take it to a bike shop and have them call me about the repair cost).

Almost as a final guilt-point, (as if this happening just before Christmas wasn't enough!) Brandon finally revealed that December 27th was also his birthday. Again, Ouch; I think that one left a mark.