I've Been Hit

When my children were quite small I went to pick up my oldest from school. His brothers and sister were in the car with me when he came out of school and hopped into the car.

We drove around the corner and were headed home when I saw a dog running through the alley. It was headed our way. I stopped the car.

The dog ran right into the side of the car. It yelped and took off back the way it had come.

We tried to call it to see if it was seriously hurt. When it did not come back to us I took the car and drove through the alley to see if we could find it.

We searched for a long time and found no trace of the poor thing. It hit the side of the car with its head. It had to be injured. There was nothing we could do except go home.

At home I thought to check the car for dents. No dents. But there was a big round rusty looking spot where the dog's head hit. It must have been blood because it washed off.

I treated my children, my mother, and my youngest brother and sister to ice cream. We all placed our orders and were enjoying our frozen treats.

When it was time to go home we all piled into my car. I went to the end of the parking lot and stopped. I looked left then right to ease out onto the busy street. But my view to the right was blocked by a large van.

I began to pull out into traffic when suddenly a bicycle was right in front of me. I stopped immediately but I hit him anyway.

He was a boy of about 14 years. The front tire of his bicycle was severely bent and not usable.

I was so frightened that he was hurt. He had come from behind that big van so that I could not see him until too late.

I asked Mom to park the car. Then I proceeded to make sure the boy was okay. He was muttering something so I took his arms to have him look at me. Then I asked again if he was hurt. He said no.

I asked if I could call his parents to have them come get him and he looked alarmed but said no.

Suddenly there was a police car with two officers there. One officer was out of the squad car telling the boy not to be afraid. She would not let me hurt him!

The police had been at a coffee shop down the street and saw the whole thing. They took all my information. I wanted to be sure the boy was not hurt. She assured me they would make sure he was safe and sent me home. I never heard anything further.

 Yesterday I was driving on the highway and saw several deer under a bunch of trees along side the road. I know how silly deer can be so I stopped my car. Actually it is an SUV and sits up rather high.

Then one of the deer suddenly broke from the rest and went to dart across the road.

That stupid deer ran headlong into the side of my car! It fell and rolled a couple of times then ran off into the trees. I did not follow it.

As soon as it was safe to pull off the road my son who was with me got out to check on damage. The deer hit the door handle.

The lock broke off from the handle and the door. The mechanism hooked to the handle to open the door is off. There is a small dent but the door handle took most of the force of the blow.

I would like to know why things run into me. I would never run into them. It is another puzzle for me to unravel.