Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Smashed

My friend Val the Bingo Queen showed up at my office door the other day (she works at the business next door) looking pained.  Like the responsible woman she is, she had gone for her annual medical checkup.  Her health would have been better served by skipping it.  This is not on account of any malfeasance on the part of the doctor.

On her way back to the parking lot after the appointment, she was run down by a teenager on a skateboard.  He slammed into her, paused long enough to watch her fall hard, face-first onto the street, and then sped off before anyone could react.

She skinned and bruised her knees and one elbow.  The only reason her right hand was saved was that she was holding her lighter and it acted as a shield when she caught her weight on that palm.  She showed me the deep scratches and scrapes in the plastic.  Therefore: going for your annual medical exam can be dangerous; but smoking can prevent serious bodily injury.

Val is in her mid-40's.  This type of body-slam isn't something she's going to recover from in a day or two.  The impact also threw out her neck, which is glitchy from a previous car accident.  I wish there were some way of showing that kid the serious consequences of his carelessness and selfishness.  I hope he feels really guilty.  There's every chance that he doesn't care at all.

8 comments:

Warped Mind of Ron said...

Probably has no idea what he's done. As a teenager you can fall 20 feet and land on your head and be up and about the next day without a second thought. As you get older :-( things just don't heal like that anymore and the kids have no idea.

LL Cool Joe said...

Oh dear, I bet he has no idea what he really did, even so it would have been nice of him to check she was ok and say sorry.

Hope she recovers quickly.

DarcsFalcon said...

What a rude kid! That he could watch her fall and not even stop long enough to ask if she's okay? There's a future hit and run driver in the making.

I sure hope your friend is okay and recovers quickly. Boy it sure is harder after 40. Poor thing. She's in my thoughts.

G. B. Miller said...

Wow that really bites.

As a parent of a teenager, I can tell you that is pretty much is a typical response from a teenager.

Anonymous said...

The shit is gone way too far. We gotta take back the streets from the punk kids.

Lynn said...

Like the others say - I doubt if he really realized what he had done. Or maybe he doesn't care. I hope she will be OK.

I tripped on a grate in the sidewalk in downtown Atlanta a few years ago and as I was going down (I remember it in slow motion) - I was thinking "This is going to be bad." So I feel for your friend!

Anonymous said...

I hope you're friend's all right, Spark, but I don't think the kid's going to lose any sleep over what he did. He'll just say something snarky and get on with his so-called life.

It's too bad, but no one teaches kids anything but how everything is all about them, and this is the pay-off for that sort of thing. I've seen it coming for years.

Jenski said...

Ouch! I hope your friend is healing. :-/