Morning Traffic

A narrative about what could happen in the Non-Designated Student Drop-Off Zone.

Sometimes I remember setting my alarm on my cell phone, but it just is not set the next morning.  Maybe I forgot to save it.  That is what happened this morning.  I heard a banging around by my older teen, the same one who would later deny banging anything.  I looked at my cell, and read it was one minute until my younger teenager would need to walk to the bus stop.  However, this was not that big of a deal, I still had plenty of time to take him to school.  I am on vacation today, so that is another reason I was not too alarmed that I somehow did not set my alarm correctly.

The drive to the school was very uneventful until we actually got near the school.  My son directed me, “Please don’t drop me at the Student Drop-off like usual.  Drop me in front of the cafeteria.”  I rolled my eyes a little, because the traffic would be worse where we were not supposed to be, because it was also off-limits to other vehicles that would also be there.  “I hope I don’t get stuck in there,” I remarked, half-jokingly, really only feeling a slight tension that I might have significant problems.  

I was assessing the scene, seeing that cars were lined up as though they were in the correct lot for dropping off students.  I was seeing the location of the end of the line, when, BAM!  The last two drivers decided at almost the same moment not to be patient and wait for the students getting out of vehicles ahead of them, therefore crashing into each other.  I asked my son,“Did you see that?” 

“Of course,” he replied, seemingly unimpressed having witnessed his first live car crash.  

“Maybe go ahead and get out here.  Bye!  Love you!  Have a good day!”

“Thanks!  Bye!  Love you!”

Okay, So, I zipped around the front of the line to my excellent position, second car at the edge of the circular drive.  I was almost out of the forbidden zone.  I glanced at my stick shift, then I heard the humming of a large tank-like rectangular vehicle.    The driver was bypassing the scene of the fender bender by turning onto the median that divided two rows of parked cars.  He drove up onto the curb of the median, disregarding the grass that he was shredding with his tires.  Then, when he did not have room in the path he started, he continued anyway, knocking over a large dead tree that should have been removed from the ground  long ago.  The giant tree fell across the roof that covered the back seat of the car ahead of me.  The falling distraction caused a ten car pile-up in the street. 

I turned off my engine and put on the emergency brake.  My son ran over to check on me, I reported, “I didn’t even get a scratch.”   Assured that I was okay, he went to class.  I dialed 911.  I was telling the dispatcher the emergency, when I saw the driver whose distraction had caused the pile-up get out of his car and walk towards the tank that had knocked over the tree.  When I saw him pulling the driver out of the tank, I thought I was witnessing a hero, but then he just started pummeling the guy.  I said into the phone, “A fight just started,” but I was thinking it was more like a killing.  The woman told me to remain calm and in my vehicle.  

The next thing I did after ending the call was to jump out of my car.  I walked towards the beating and yelled, “Stop it!  Stop it!  Don’t kill him!  You’re hurting him!  Are you crazy?”  

The man was like a zombie from a movie in that he was not responding to my pleas.  I returned to my car and got a bottle of window cleaner.  I thought about spraying it in the attacker’s eyes, but realized I would then be committing assault.  Instead, I ran to the men, the zombie and the bleeding scarecrow, limp without life.  I aimed the spray nozzle at the front of the pants of the only one throwing punches.   Spray, spray, Spray.  Punch, punch, punch.  Spray, spray, spray, “Stop hitting him!  You’re hurting him!  Punch, punch, punch.  Spray, spray, spray.  Finally, he looked at me with wide-opened eyes.  He dropped the scarecrow on the ground.  “Now sit down!”  He sat down.  

As I performed hands-only CPR on the victim, the once aggressive man sat there looking as though his own brains had been damaged in the “fight” that had been completely one-sided.  At about the moment the man’s heart started, I realized somebody else was zip-tying the crazed-man’s wrists behind his back.  She was a mother I remembered from our kids’ last school.  She was always volunteering to help at the school.  I gave her a thumbs up, then I put my hooded sweatshirt under my patient’s  bleeding head.    A few minutes later, two police walked over to us.

The next several hours flew, and then I was able to drive my son home instead of his having to ride the bus.  Later, my family was proud to watch me interviewed on the evening news. When the reporter asked me, “What are the most important lessons you will take away from today?"

“Hands-only CPR can save a life, violence solves nothing, and I will never again let my son off in front of the cafeteria instead of the Designated Student Drop-off Zone.”

Author's Note

The beginning really happened, including the initial car crash. I made up the middle and ending.

Reviews

[ScottTheScreenwriter]

Exciting story, love the description of the person being assaulted as a "bleeding scarecrow".

[E.A. Rubin]

Thank you! I appreciate your reading it.