BASHED!

I had no premonition. Or maybe, Lil Miss waking up and refusing to take her musical instrument to school because she wanted to work at her Math was a premonition. She started to cry when I insisted. I was not in the kind of mood to be swayed by feminine wiles. Not this morning. I had some me-time planned for right after school run and wanted it over quickly.

When she dilly-dallied at opening the gate, I did it myself and when she waited for my, 'seat belt,please' I refused to oblige. It is funny, the details that I now recall when my mind had drawn  a blank previously. 

We got on the road and at the first intersection, I stopped while I assessed the road all around to make a turn. The next thing was a slow movie of video and sound in slow motion..... I watched Lil Miss being thrown against the side of the car and I remember thinking, 'Thank God for the safety/seat belt' I felt the car move sideways when I was so certain that forwards and backwards were the motions I could initiate from within it and I knew that some outside force had thrown the car. I found my voice and asked if Lil Miss was fine, anxiously checking her right arm that I had seen hit the far car door to ascertain if there was any broken bone or no.

I tried to open the door to assess the damage but it wouldn't budge so I gestured to a man who approached to help me open the door so I could get out. As I got out, my heart sank as I looked at the damage. This is not good, I thought. I immediately started thinking of the expense and inconvenience and started mentally ticking off whom I could call on for help in my new circumstances.

I looked over at the man who had helped to open my door and heard him speak. I was astounded at what he said as I walked over to his car and saw a young boy dressed in UI Staff School uniform; this singular act would prove highly significant later on but at this time, I had no idea. I just wanted to ascertain that he was fine, he assured me he was, with a shy smile.

The man, sensing I had no idea of how things like this work, kept up a stream of unbelievable talk. I heard and felt worse and worse. The traffic jam we were causing was one of the top irritants at this time. The man refused to give me his phone number and was insisting on being right. I was unsure what he was right about, bashing the car or trying to mentally bully me. 

I decided that the best course of action was to allow other road users thoroughfare and I entered my car to move it out of the road. As I did, I heard another loud crash, a similar although less intense bashing of two other cars had occurred. This convinced me that moving the car was the right thing to do. I did and returned to the accident scene to find the man, basher, bully and now fugitive, had fled. I was stunned. I could not believe that anyone could be so callous and unfeeling. I made to return to my car and take Lil Miss to school when a man who was pulling on FRSC paraphernalia approached me and asked why I had allowed the man to 'escape'. I responded that short of holding him physically, there was nothing I could have done to keep him there. He insisted that the man had been wrong as he had seen all that went on as the accident occurred and wanted me to try and find the man so he could be brought to book. I told him I didn't know the man but had seen a child in a school uniform in his vehicle. Please permit my use of vehicle cos his car is of the time when cars were built with the mindset that they would outlast their users whereas mine....sigh! Never mind! 

I decided then that I would try and find this man and get some measure of justice and so I turned around and drove towards UI. Upon entering through the main gate, I had visions of him dropping his child and leaving UI and never returning with the said vehicle and so I stopped at the Main Gate and gave a description of both the car and man. I then went on to Staff School and there I met a vehicle. 

I was almost sure it was not the same one as it bore no mark of a run-in with another car and even the number plate that had suffered the most of the impact on my car was fixed and looking almost new. I drove past it and the decided I would ask the owner of this vehicle if he knew another parent with the same brand of vehicle. I asked a teacher the identity of the owner of the vehicle and she cautiously asked why. When I told her, she pointed me in the direction of the owner of this vehicle also convinced it could not be the same man. I approached the class she pointed out to me, (he teaches there) and as I approached, lo and behold, it was the same man!

To say he was surprised to see me is an understatement. He again launched into some offensive talk and at that moment, I finally lost my cool. 

My car is fixed. I endured 3days without the free use of a car, did some trekking, and adjusted my view of humans in general. 

It seemed I had taken everything that occurred with this accident casually because when I went by the same spot yesterday, I saw something that reminded me how very easily things could have been much much worse....A vehicle, yes, metal, not the plastic used for cars nowadays had been bashed at the same spot and the entire front of the car including the engine was destroyed. I immediately heard the lesson.....grace saved me, and mine! Thankful.....