Too often I have received a call and felt too far away to do anything quickly.
It was Saturday afternoon I'd bought the bed linen upstairs to make the bed. I'd finished mowing the lawn and was tired. Unknown to me while I mowed the lawn my phone had switched itself to airplane mode and wasn't receiving calls. I laid down on the bare bed to take a snooze. Every few minutes Misha would move or an outside noise would wake me, so I was not getting any sleep. When the home phone
rang I was a little pissed. It was Teri according to the identification. She most likely wanted to know if something I wanted at the grocery was not available would something else do. I answered. Instead of grocery talk she is saying something about Nastia, a bee and it's pretty bad. Teri tells me it happened near the dog place on Rt 304. As I rushed to put on shoes the story I thought I hear is a bee got in a woman's car and she hit Nastia. I'm out the door in unstrapped sandals in moments. I race down the street heading for New City again. It always seems I'm on Conger's Road heading towards an accident involving one of my children in this direction. As I'm driving toward Nastia I have a chance to reflect on previous accidents and to let my mind wander about how bad this one is. Again when I get to the corner where I supposed to see the accident, I see nothing. I turn right onto Rt 304 going toward Stop and Shop. I see a car in the left turn lane thinking it must be involved in the accident, when it drives away. A
little further down the road I see Nastia's Ford Escape's front driver's side fender crushed into the center guard rail. Behind her is a police car with it's lights flashing. This has become a common event for me, but the anxiety level has not decreased. I pull off to the opposite side of the road and cross over to her. She is standing next to the car taking something out of the car. When she see me she dissolves in tears. She starts talking about how she was driving home and a bee came out of nowhere and fell between her legs. She hates bees and when she tried to push it on to the floor with something she took her eyes off the road and she turns into the guard rail. People stop to help. A Nurse asks she if she is alright and if she is on drugs? Not helpful at this time really. Though I can imagine how it must have looked. I hug her into my arms maybe a little too tightly as she continues to cry I try to lighten the situation by saying at least she didn't ruin her new liftgate. Nastia doesn't think it funny. The accident as I understand it now was Nastia was driving home on the southbound lanes of Rt 303, she had the window open. As she nears the light to make a left turn, probably before she has slowed down much a bee out of nowhere drops between her legs on to the seat. She jumps a little, then grabs something to push the bee off the seat taking her eyes off the road. Her one hand on the wheels turns the car to the left crashing into the guard rail.
A few moments later Teri show up and she hugs her tightly. Both of us are just glad she is unhurt. The officer has called a tow service. This is the first time I have had to deal with someone other than Shamrock in about forever. He pulls up. I want to tell him where I want the car taken, but I don't want to be in the way. Teri and Nastia have gone home. It takes some time to get the car on the flatbed. I then walk over to him and say I want the car taken to Steve's auto body on Rt 303. He says he can't. I complain to the police officer who talks to the tow truck driver. The tow truck driver tries to hand me a load of crap that he can't drop cars at closed auto body shops. Steve's told me that is done all the time at his shop, still the driver says no can't. I tell him to off load the car, he refuses. He end up taking the car and charges me $510.00. I call the police about this outrageous amount. They tell me to bring them an itemized bill and the officer will bring it to his superior to determine if the tow truck operator did anything wrong. I have little hope. I have always hated tow truck drivers except for Chris Kelly of Shamrock who for many years treated me very well.
The minute Steve see the car he calls me and tells me it's dead. Nastia needs another car. Well at least the car has a great lift gate on it.
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