Crash and the Woman From Nowhere

Things were going pretty good when I got back from Washington yesterday. Got off the train at South Station, headed to the red line, and right away the train pulled up. Looked like I was going to have plenty of time to fulfill my duty as cook that night, and then get my homework done. As the train was headed over the Charles river, I called one of the other guys for a pick-up at Harvard Square. Got off the train, climbed the stairs out of the station, and there he was, perfect timing. Which was nice, because by now it was raining pretty good.

As we approached the left hand turn into the one-way street we live on, we had to stop and wait, because there was a white tow truck backing out of our street. As I was quietly cursing the tow truck, I heard the sound of tires sliding on wet pavement. I looked instinctively in the side view mirror to see what was happening behind us. Bam! I heard an impact. Then Bam! One more. Except I felt this one too. So, now here we are, about 100-200 yards from home standing in the rain and exchanging information with two other drivers, and waiting for the police to come. I wasn't happy, and within a few minutes it started to rain harder. But I stayed out of the car for fear that another driver might pull around the other two cars and not see our little carolla on the other side. I tried to keep our papers dry underneath my jacket, as the other Jesuit who was driving handled negotiations with the two drivers. I hope I can be forgiven for just standing there on the sidelines. After all, I'd just spent 7 hours on a train!

As we are standing there, I see a car pull up behind the third car in our row of cars. Must be a friend of one of the other drivers, come to help out, I thought. The woman gets out of the car, doesn't say a word, walks past us, hikes up her skirt a little and runs on down the sidewalk, who knows where, maybe to the dentist office on the corner. Now, we're pulled over on a busy street, and this is not a parking zone.

So, finally a police officer arrives. Asks about the fourth car. We tell him the story, and we get a little bit of a reaction out of him, but he doesn't crack a smile. Goes to his car, checks out all the info, and eventually we're free to go. Which leaves just the woman's car, sitting by itself on the side of the road, a side of the road on which no other cars are parked because nowhere on that side of the street is there a parking zone. If it weren't raining so hard, and I hadn't just been through 40 minutes of standing in it, I might have been tempted to wait there and see the woman's reaction to finding her lone car sitting there, with a nice little present from the local police department. Maybe that'll be her clue to be a little more aware of what's going on around her, because I don't think she had any clue that she was parking behind an accident scene!

For some reason it reminded me of the man who ran away from Gethsemane, leaving his clothes behind.

Despite the drama, I did manage to throw together some spaghetti in meat sauce for dinner.