August Memories

in writing •  8 years ago  (edited)

I remember so clearly the day my life changed.  Would I have changed things if I'd just jogged on by instead of stopping?

I first saw the old man sitting in the parked car with his windows up.  This was a quiet neighborhood this morning. No one was working in the yard. No children were playing outside. I looked again at the car as I approached, almost finished with my jog and ready to return home. The engine wasn't running,  it was just after 11:00 am, on a Saturday in the middle of August.  He sat in the passenger seat, eyes straight ahead and sweat dripping from his weathered face. 

As I jogged by, curiosity got the better of me. (Note to self: mind your own business from now on.) I tapped on the window to get his attention, my intention being to determine if he was okay. It was the neighborly thing to do, right? That's the kind of person I've always been. When he didn't respond, my mind immediately jumped straight into scenarios in which the old man had just suffered a heart attack and needed prompt medical attention and one fleeting theory that he was part of an advanced alien incursion bent on world domination.  I tried the door handle; it was locked.

Quickly discarding the alien theory, I grabbed my cell phone and dialed 911, gave the information to the operator, and stepped back to the sidewalk to wait for someone in authority to take charge. 

No one had come outside to ask why I was standing beside a locked car with its passenger. There was no one to flag down, no one to ask advice or propose alternate theories as to what was happening here. That was odd.




I heard the siren from several blocks away. The cruiser,  followed closely by the ambulance, sailed by me and the parked car, in spite of my waving arms. One block away, brakes screeched to a stop where a group of people were now gathered around an unconscious figure lying in the road.  Strange, the figure was wearing the same jogging set that I was. 

Turning back to the old man in the car, I was startled to see that he was now sitting behind the wheel.  Looking at me directly in the face, he motioned for me to get in. 

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