Thursday Morning

Thursday morning Romeo and I set out for the big walk. A woman who lives in the duplex next to the locksmith was standing on her front porch with her husband. "Can I pet him?"
"Sure, his name is Romeo."
"We had to put our dog down yesterday," she said.
"The boxer?"
"Yes."
"I'm so sorry."
"I remember your other dog," she said
"Lily the yellow lab?"
"Yes."
"I've been through it. I hope you grieve well and you consider adopting again." I said.

I continued walking and then I heard a huge crash up ahead. Two vehicles had collided at the intersection. The cars continued to move as if in slow motion, one knocked against the telephone pole and bounced off and seemed airborne. I saw a black SUV and something bright yellow. There was a tangle of metal and shattered glass. I turned around and ran back to the locksmith shop. A woman with a phone came running out toward me. "Call 911," I said. "Oh my god, oh my god." I was shaking and Romeo was shaking. "He's terrified of loud noises," I said. The woman with the phone got through to dispatch and within minutes four police SUV's arrived with their sirens blaring and then the fire dept, ambulance, Chief of Police, detectives, traffic police, and more.

The woman who phoned in the accident ran up ahead to get a closer look. She came back and said, "there's a baby, they have the jaws of life over there. Did you see the car? It's up on the yard."
"No, I didn't" I said. The professionals are here, I can go now, I told myself. I took a detour to avoid the accident scene and continued on my walk to the pond. The image and the sound of the cars crashing kept playing over and over in my head. What if those people hadn't stopped me to meet Romeo? We were headed right to that exact spot. Romeo and I could've been severely injured or killed. What a terrifying thought.

On my way home the police still had the roads blocked off with cruisers. I told one of the officers that I had seen the crash. "Thank God for car seats," he said. "The baby will be OK. Everybody was able to walk and talk but they've gone to the hospital to get checked out."

Yesterday walking home from the pool, cutting through the post office parking lot, I ran into Jungie who works on the post office grounds. I told him about the accident. He pointed to the two crushed vehicles in the police station parking lot below where we were standing. "Was it these cars?"
I looked. "Yes it was. I heard they're going to be okay. I was there when the crash happened and I am still shaken."
"We figured someone died, or was on drugs," he said.
"No, thank God. I think someone just ran a light."
"Looks like that one did," he said, pointing to the Dodge. I glanced down and through the cut-away roof I spotted an infant's baby shoe in the car seat.