All my life, I've been taught to respect elders, be kind to them and blah blah. I have most willingly done that. Even when old people tend to give me advice, I stand there and listen to what they have to say just out of pure respect. Even if I completely disagree with them, I would just nod my head in agreement and say yes...yes... basically take it through one ear and let it out through the other. Back answering my elders is out of the question and if my parents were to witness that, they'd give me the look.
Let me tell you what happened today...
Mom and me went out to do some shopping. on our way home, I was driving and we had just finished a small heated argument. The lane was a bit narrow, but enough for two vehicles to pass on either sides. I was driving at normal speed and all of a sudden a man on a moped comes riding straight ahead at me. His lane is absolutely free but for some reason he's on a collision course. Mom starts screaming, I apply my brakes and the car barely slows down. The moped guy, now aware of his mistake tries to turn in order to avoid crashing. Then everything goes slow motion.
My car stops, the moped guy loses control, unable to avoid collision, hits my extreme right bumper at full speed, falls down, slides my side with his moped hitting my side of the door and I am watching him from my window going down bruising himself on the tar road.
I sit for a few seconds in the car trying to grasp what just happened. Mom is almost in tears. I understand that it wasn't my fault and from the corner of my eye, I see people running to help the guy.
I open the door and step out. The guy in his sixties is lying down bleeding, his right hand and leg are bruised. I turn into the incredible hulk. There was this sudden burst of anger. I scream at him like mad, "Where were you looking? You had no other car to hit but mine?" Pointing at the empty lane on which he was supposed to be, I scream, "What is this place for? not enough for your moped?" The man is speechless and is stammering something that I can't hear. I slam my door and by now there is a crowd, no one is talking, because I am screaming at the top of my voice. "If you had died, it is me who has to go to jail, you will happily die", someone from the crowd asks me to move and park my car towards the left in order to allow traffic to pass. I look at him and scream too "I know what to do..".
In frustration, I look for a bottle of water in the car, find none, open my boot and search, slam the door hard and move the car. In the chaos, I had totally forgotten mom. The crowd moves him to the side of the road. I come back and ask him "were you drunk? can't see?" The man looks at me and looks down. He is guilty as it was his mistake and is shaking and bleeding. No he wasn't drunk. Just ashamed because I was screaming at him and he was defenseless. He then tells me, "all my life, in 40 years of driving, I've never had an accident." I say it does not matter, everyone has a first time.
Then, I make him park his moped aside, take him in my car to a nearby hospital for a tetanus injection. There is not a soul in the small hospital. A lady sitting on a chair gets up as she sees us. I tell her, this man here needs a tetanus injection, "where is the doctor?", she replies that the doctor will come only after an hour. "Fine, where is the nurse?", She replies, "I am the nurse". I look at her again and ask, "Where is your uniform?", she says, "you will believe only if I wear a uniform?". By now, I was banging my head on the wall.
She gives him an injection and a few tablets. I pay the bill. Then me along with mom drop the man off at the accident spot where his moped is parked. He says thank you, we shake hands and I drive away not before giving him a stern warning and the look of fury.
