Let me paint this picture for you.
I'm sitting at a stop light, in the right-hand turning lane, waiting patiently for the arrow. I turn to my right, distracted by music. Maybe I'm really not feeling that patient. I find it very hard to stare straight ahead when I'm at a stop light. I found it odd that the truck next to me was backing up. I looked forward - why was the person in front of me backing up too? Why was I going forward? Had we just barely bumped?
We had.
Oh man...I will never do that again, I hope.
She jumped out of the car, and I thought, "Okay, she backed into me. She's gonna apologize and we can move on."
Oh, no.
"Why did you do that?!"
"...."
"Why did you bump into me?"
"Um, you backed into me."
"Why would I do that?! Why would I back up in the middle of the highway?!"
"I dont' know."
The conversation went on for a while. She went from demanding my 'card' to threatening to call the police. That scared me. I had visions of having my license taken away. But she got someone else to agree with her - it was my fault, not hers.
"Let's pull into the parking lot! Right up here, Hastings, and we can talk about it."
"No! I don't trust you now! We're staying right here!"
"Just the parking lot! Look, the arrow is green -"
"They've called the police."
NOOOOOO!!!!
"Were you on your *BEEP* phone?!"
I was starting to get very defensive and very annoyed. "No ma'am, I was not on my phone."
"Well, that just makes you more of an irresponsible driver!"
"Okay, well, do you care if I make a phone call?"
"No! I don't care what you do."
"Okay. 'Scuse me."
( Dad?! Dad, I'm in trouble! Dad, I bumped into someone and she's really mad and I have no idea what to do and she called the police and I'm not sure what happened and....) So, that's sort of how that conversation went.
I rolled up my window, started fighting tears of...I'm not sure what. Fear, injustice, shock? All of those, probably. Dad calmed me down - he made it sound like it was no big deal. So I calmed down a little bit, prayed very hard, panicked, prayed very hard, calmed down again, waited for the police to show up. An old bald guy stopped and told me I should put my flashing lights on while I was still on the phone with Dad. I told him I couldn't find them.
When the police showed up, everything went a lot smoother. The 'lady' explained to the policemen in a very loud voice what had happened - she made me sound really bad. He came back and asked me what was going on - I explained that I didn't really know, I wasn't sure what happened.
He told me to pull into the gas station parking lot. We did. I didn't get out of the car once. I gave him my license and insurance info. I listened to the lady complain to her husband about me calling my father and wailing "DADDY!" (Which I did not do, by the way. I still call him that but I didn't then. And I don't think I wailed.)
I didn't get a ticket, but I am still shocked and a bit freaked out. A stranger yelled at me and reduce me to tears - but I don't feel at all humiliated. More just like...Well...hello, there, world. You're disappointing.
I hope I never reduce a teenage driver to tears just because I'm thumping mad at them. Ever. Ever, ever, ever.....
And right-hand turning lanes on 82nd and Slide may never be the same again.
Gill the Irresponsible Driver.
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