The World and the County are vastly different then when I learned to drive. The Roads have thousands more cars on them with thousands of people driving with various levels of expertise. I wanted my Girls to be better then most.
When I drive with them and they are doing thirty miles an hour on a road that is thirty I let it go. If they drift down toward twenty-five I have to say something for their own safety.
I drive fast. It is something that God and I discuss regularly. Especially when He has a car pull out in front of me when I'm doing forty-five in a thirty and this person does twenty-seven. God will also put someone on my ass when I'm doing thirty-five in a thirty to remind me how it feels.
All of this is an introduction to my daughter Nastia's accidents. Elena's might come at the end of this.
In the beginning of teaching Nastia to drive I let her drive to the bowling alley on Wednesdays. On a bright sunshiny Spring afternoon we are driving pass Clarkstown North when a car a few hundred feet ahead decides to stop to make a left just past the ball fields. Nastia is chatting away to me as I watch this car get closer and closer. She continues to chat not slowing down. Finally I yell for her to stop and I ask if she saw the car. She said she had and she was going to slow down. I wondered if that was before or after she hit the car.
Yesterday, Nastia comes out to my car, I'd just backed into the driveway. I'm amazed at how confident she looks and suddenly how grown up she also looks. She leans gently against my car telling me she is going to drive her sister to work, then go bowling (ah, that bowling alley again.), she has free bowling passes. We talk about this and that, nothing of importance. I always envision after life changing incidents that the time spent before them if people had only known what was about to happen maybe they would have done things differently.
Nastia goes off to drive her sister to work. I go inside and realize I need to go to the grocery store in New City to get some stuff for dinner. Time passes before I manage to get out of the house and go. I head to Shop Rite just down the street from the bowling alley. It never enters my mind that Nastia is just down the street from where I am, I just want to get the cheese for Yankee Tower Meatloaf and get home. Too much time has been wasted and dinner is going to be late. I rush in and rush out, only thinking about the slow pokes in front of me. I get home and start dinner. Meat, Onion, cheese and the phone rings, it's Teri. She says Nastia has had a slight fender bender at the bowling alley. I don't hear anything else. I'm saying goodbye and I'm getting my coat on. This is what I have feared from the moment they both got their licenses.
Of course someone going the speed limit pulls out in front of me. I silently curse them and any children they have or will ever have. They turn left and I make the light at Kings Highway, I'm moving now, I legally pass someone on the causeway. I'm making great time and will be there in record time. Then I pull up behind Grandma Mosses. She's doing the speed limit. Damn it women, don't you know in New York the speed limit is just a suggestion! I follow her into New City to the light at the Courthouse. Pulling up slowly to the corner and sitting I notice a car that looks like it is sitting the wrong way in the road. I don't see any damage to it or any flashing lights. Is this it and if so where is Nastia? I continue to stare at it and realize I'm looking at the parking lot, not the road. I hear a honk behind me and I'm off running again I turn the corner and can see the road past the bowling alley. I just don't see an accident. No flashing lights, nothing. I slowly pull into the bowling alley looking for the accident. I'm tense waiting for the moment I see the accident so I can turn around and get to her. I roll slowly down the parking lot and look to the bowling alley. A lone figure stands in the fading light of the day against the building. She looks familiar, I see a familiar car. I pick up the pace and drive toward her. I see the Police and no other car, I'm confused. I park, get out of the car and go over to my daughter. She is upset fighting a losing battle with her tears. I ask her if she is ok and she then proceeds to tell me she was backing out of the parking spot and bumped a car. She went inside to tell the owner and the women insisted on calling the police and she is gone. That's the accident? I take my daughter's face in both hands and force her to look at me. If this is the worst accident you ever have I'll take it any day. I tell her she did the right thing, what we told her to do. Later on I will tell her if it happens again to check for damage before looking for the owner.
I tap on the Police officers window and introduce myself. I ask him to tell the women I'd like to get a call to talk about where she feels this is going to before she goes to Insurance.
Nastia has started to recover. We get a copy of the police report and finally I tell Nastia "Now the hard part comes, You have to drive home."
I tell her to follow me and we go the easiest way home I can think of.
At Home Teri and I tell her she doesn't drive to the mall tonight, but tomorrow she will be driving. If this is the worst accident she has I will feel blessed.
Elena has had different accidents then her sister. Her first one happened at school. One Morning in the fall on a half lit morning Elena is slow getting up. Generally She is good about this. I am a live and let life type of person and believe that the best way to teach someone to be a better person is to let them make the little mistakes and learn from them. Teri likes to teach and part of that process is yelling you are going to be late to her daughters.
This Morning Teri is teaching, no I guess We are both teaching. Teri is yelling upstairs to Elena that she is going to be late and I am letting Elena make her mistakes to learn from (I know it's kind of thin, but that was joke). Elena comes down in her usual joyous mood, "I'm coming all ready!" ( It needs to be said in a exasperated attitudy voice)( FYI: attitudy: having excessive attitude), I don't think it is a real word, but it should be. Elena has managed to become quite a person in the almost ten years she has been here. She has gone through changes that some would not have survived. She is a strong almost women who is, yes attitudy. (see above for definition).
A Quick breakfast, some more encouragement from her mother,"You are going to be late!" and she is off to school. Teri leaves and I am about to leave when I get a call from Teri that Elena has clipped a car. I ask her to take pictures of the other car, she does. I look close at them and it looks exactly like her car, only in better shape. She has gone to the office at school to report it and I again race, I guess since this happened before Nastia clipped the car at the bowling alley and after Nastia hit the bowling alley. I guess.... I guess I need to lay down and figure this out......
OK, I was with Nastia when she hit the bowling alley, so I guess I raced for the first time to Elena's accident. I get to the school, go through security and get to the office as they are calling the other girl down to the office. The other Girl is nice and her parents are nice, but it still costs Elena about $800.00 for a little bump on the bumper. I was hoping for a forget about it. It's just a car, or it's just an old car. I guess not.
Elena's other accident happened when she was going to pick up Jessica and took a turn to quickly clipping a curb. She dents the rim and puts a bulge in the tire, which weakens the side wall. I hear about it, but no one seems concerned. The next Day I see the car at the curb. The Bulge looks like a major welt. Something to take to the Doctor. I tell Elena she can't take the car to work until it is fixed. I am taking the tire off her car when David shows up. I ask him another favor, if he could bring the tire to Mavis and fix the rim and replace the tire. He has it for several days, but when I go to pick it up it looks real good, almost couldn't tell it had been dented. I put it back on Elena's car and text her a picture of the tire. Letting her know it is good as new. This Accident, because of connections of her sister's costs minimal, just 40 odd dollars.
I know I will be adding to this story if the girls are like me when I was their age. I just don't know how my parents made it through our late teens and twenties without going insane. God bless them and God help us keep them safe.
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