Thursday, October 21, 2010

Pay it Forward

I was on my way home from work tonight when a strange thing happened.  I got rear-ended.  Nothing exceptional, just a tap, but it was a little "slow-motiony" nonetheless. 

I felt the bump, crinkled up my brow, and turned to the guy in the car next to me.  We exchanged "What The Hell" looks, and both of us shrugged.  I rolled down my window and leaned my head out of my car to look behind me, and a young boy (seventeen) was getting out of his car to talk to me.  I looked for a pen, but the light turned green.  He said he would meet me at Wal Mart (up the road a piece), and that he was so bummed...you see, he'd just hit another lady last month.  He was certain, however, that my car was intact and that there wasn't any damage.

I drove to Wal Mart, glancing occasionally in my rear view to be sure he was following me, but my "Mom of a 17 year old boy" intuition told me he would be faithful to his word.  I pulled over, he jumped out his car.  I got out slowly and looked at his face.  He was scared and his adrenaline was racing, so I put on my mommy voice, and calmed him down.  There was nothing wrong with my bumper.  He was so relieved that I wasn't going to call the police that he kept self-reporting.  He said, "Honestly, I was looking at my phone!"  To which I replied, "Dumbass". 

I scolded him, painted a scenario of me being a young mother with a possible infant in the car and how upsetting that would be.  How a tap like that could injure a small child.  I said he needed to be more careful, as I'm sure his mom wouldn't want him to get hurt.  I pointed to his passenger and told him he needed to be responsible to his friends, too.  Then I sent him on his way.

His name was Sean.  I hope he listened.

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