A STRANGE NIGHT Back in the early 80s I was involved in my one and only fender bender that was clearly my fault. No one was seriously hurt, but the teenage girl driving the other car banged her nose against her steering wheel hard enough to draw a bunch of blood. As I drove home I found myself shaking. I was deeply disturbed by the young girls injury and my culpability. So I stopped in a Big Boy to calm down a bit over a cup of tea. There were not many people in the shop so I plopped down in a booth and swung my legs around so that I was sitting on the edge of the booth rather than in it.. A few minutes later an off duty Pittsburgh cop, working as a watchman, sat down on the edge of the booth next to me. Suddenly it seemed as though a priest had sat down next to me, and I was filled with a profound need to confess. I started babbling and somehow managed to tell him the whole story of the accident without completely breaking down. As I told my tale the cop never actually looked at me, and when I finished he remained silent for a while. Then he said softly while still not looking at me, I know how you feel. Earlier this evening my mother was walking home from Mass in McKees Rocks when she was killed by a hit and run driver. When I got off duty I had to go to the morgue to identify her body. I thought about not coming to work tonight, but then I told my wife, What will I do if I stay home? But what I didnt tell my wife is that I was afraid Id go looking for the guy who murdered my mother. And if I found him Id kill him. So I came here to work instead.
Posted on: Fri, 11 Jul 2014 15:57:44 +0000
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