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Martial Arts Topics / Saved a little kid's life today...
« on: September 27, 2004, 08:20:09 PM »
So, it was a typically quiet afternoon at the strip mall GNC that I manage. I was taking a break and just hanging by the front door, to get some fresh air. A mother in her mid-30s walked by with three kids. The oldest was a girl about 8 years old, who was pushing a baby carriage with an infant in it. Following them was a little boy about 4 or 5 years old tops, who was wearing leg braces and was walking with crutches. I don't know what was wrong with him, but he looked like a smaller version of Tiny Tim from A Christmas Carroll--definitely not in good shape.
Something bugged me from the start as they all walked by--mainly the fact that neither the mother nor the 8-year-old daughter was watching the crippled kid--he was literally about 12 or 15 feet behind them. They walked at a "normal" pace, which the crippled kid obviously couldn't maintain. The gap between them widened, and nobody seemed to care.
The mother then veered off and walked into the parking lot, to get something from her mini van. The daughter kept going straight on the mall sidewalk (pushing the baby carriage), heading towards the pizza joint. The crippled kid brought up the rear.
Suddenly, the crippled boy made a beeline for his mom. I watched in horror as he aimlessly headed for the edge of the curb, like a clueless dog with no road sense. A million things went thru my head in that moment--I actually froze for a second, saying to myself, "Sh!t, that kid's just gonna walk into the street!"
He kept going.
And a car was coming.
I suddenly snapped out of the surreal state of mind I was in, and ran over to the kid shouting "WHOA, WHOA, WHOA!" The kid heard me and stopped right at the edge of the curb. At that very instant, I ran in front of him to prevent him from going any further. The car stopped, and then proceeded cautiously. I looked over at the mother who was still by her car, staring in shock. She ran back and started yelling at the poor kid, "What are you doing? Don't you know to look both ways before you cross?" and blah, blah, blah. The kid started to cry. The mother said absolutely nothing to me--not even a simple "Thank you".
Man, that whole episode ticked me off. I don't mean to sound abrasive and/or judgemental, but that stupid woman should have been keeping an eye on her kid. Just the fact that she was letting him walk behind her (and quite far away at that) was just plain wrong. Maintain some sort of pace with the poor little guy! And then to just walk off to her van without looking at where he even was--what a friggin' idiot.
If I hadn't been working, I frankly would have told her off--but I didn't know what kind of ramifications would be involved, so I checked myself.
But I was SO tempted.
Stupid friggin' @#!%&.
Anyway, I said a couple of prayers afterwards--one thanking God for enabling me to save the little guy, and one asking God to make sure that the little guy gets treated better by his mom in the future.
What a crazy experience...
Something bugged me from the start as they all walked by--mainly the fact that neither the mother nor the 8-year-old daughter was watching the crippled kid--he was literally about 12 or 15 feet behind them. They walked at a "normal" pace, which the crippled kid obviously couldn't maintain. The gap between them widened, and nobody seemed to care.
The mother then veered off and walked into the parking lot, to get something from her mini van. The daughter kept going straight on the mall sidewalk (pushing the baby carriage), heading towards the pizza joint. The crippled kid brought up the rear.
Suddenly, the crippled boy made a beeline for his mom. I watched in horror as he aimlessly headed for the edge of the curb, like a clueless dog with no road sense. A million things went thru my head in that moment--I actually froze for a second, saying to myself, "Sh!t, that kid's just gonna walk into the street!"
He kept going.
And a car was coming.
I suddenly snapped out of the surreal state of mind I was in, and ran over to the kid shouting "WHOA, WHOA, WHOA!" The kid heard me and stopped right at the edge of the curb. At that very instant, I ran in front of him to prevent him from going any further. The car stopped, and then proceeded cautiously. I looked over at the mother who was still by her car, staring in shock. She ran back and started yelling at the poor kid, "What are you doing? Don't you know to look both ways before you cross?" and blah, blah, blah. The kid started to cry. The mother said absolutely nothing to me--not even a simple "Thank you".
Man, that whole episode ticked me off. I don't mean to sound abrasive and/or judgemental, but that stupid woman should have been keeping an eye on her kid. Just the fact that she was letting him walk behind her (and quite far away at that) was just plain wrong. Maintain some sort of pace with the poor little guy! And then to just walk off to her van without looking at where he even was--what a friggin' idiot.
If I hadn't been working, I frankly would have told her off--but I didn't know what kind of ramifications would be involved, so I checked myself.
But I was SO tempted.
Stupid friggin' @#!%&.
Anyway, I said a couple of prayers afterwards--one thanking God for enabling me to save the little guy, and one asking God to make sure that the little guy gets treated better by his mom in the future.
What a crazy experience...