Our faith in humankind shaken, we stood alone in the dark. Frustrated and scared with the smell of gas and oil mixed with the cool crisp night air, I shivered as I realized my pants were wet. Puzzled, I wondered why I was wet. Right then, I heard Tod yell back to the man in the second story window, “I will shut up—when you call 911!” The man said he would as he pushed his window closed with a bang leaving my family alone again in the dark of night. Exhausted with dread in our hearts standing by our new ‘used’ car that was ripped apart by the impact of the wreak leaving us stranded, the pain from the wreck was starting to set into my neck, back, shoulder—well, really everywhere as I stood there cold and wet—fear filled my heart.
Just when we thought no one was ever going to help, a big man came running up towards us out of breath. “Are you okay?” he asked as he shared he watched the car that hit us driving fast going through several red flashing lights gaining speed before hitting us. As the car spun around and drove back past him, he could not make out the license plate because it was too dark. He described the car as an off white tricked out 1960’s car with a full chrome grill with a headlights set inside the grill speeding the wrong way up a one way street.
Once the police officer arrived, he talked to the eyewitness first. When the police officer realized I was five months pregnant and possibly noticing that my pants were soaked, the police radioed for an ambulance. They loaded my family safely into the back of the ambulance. I was finally starting to warm up while lying on the stretcher under a blanket as the medic was checking my vitals. My daughter sat silently staring at me wrapped in a blanket in Tod’s arms. I could feel her fear. I too was terrified wondering why my pants were wet. Was it amniotic fluid? What was going to happen to my unborn baby? I was wearing a seat belt. Could that have hurt my baby and tore the amniotic sack? I was too scared to ask or tell Tod about my fear, so I sat quietly as we sped towards the hospital. We heard over the radio that they had caught the driver. My husband and I made eye contact and smiled as it gave us some glimmer of hope that the person that caused this horrifying experience would be held responsible.
Read more of this story next week.