Reply #33: may i jack this thread for a moment? [View All]

[dweller]

and i'll try to keep it short, but i probably can't, so i apologize i have to get this off my chest.

last nite i got off work fairly early for a change, which is good for i had to be back early today for a circumstance, and was happy to get home to get a good nite's rest. I planned to have a glass of cheer, head to bed, get up and take care of the business.
I had no more than walked in, sat down, and hit the button on the answering machine and listening to my mom's message about momstuff, when BAM! and the power went off. Now normally that sound is preceded by a long screeching of tires on pavement, then BAM! and then the power outage. So i sat there for about 10 seconds and realized the missing element, and thought... oh shit.
Jumped in my car (i live down a long drive off a blind curve) and already had my best flashlight in my hand, and drove up to the road, pointed my car in the direction i knew would be in question and ran up to the small car that had plowed into the power pole and was sitting there. Inside was a young man lying back in the driver's seat with some blood around his head. He was groaning.
I told him to lie still, the ambulance was on the way. (i lied) i repeated it a couple of times, and then ran back and drove back to my dark home and called 911. A few minutes later, i took off again back to the scene to find a couple that had happened along and were just looking at the car from the middle of the road.
Me and my trusty flashlight ran back and told them he was in there, and he was hurt. We approached the car. The windshield was blown out, the front end totalled, the power pole cracked in half, the inside of the car was a mishmash (backseat in the floor, the steering wheel bent hard to the right, and the guy still lying in the front seat, blood over the right of his face. He was slowly rocking back and forth.
Together we told him to stay still, the rescue squad was on the way. He asked 'what for?' and we told him to lie still over and over but he started struggling to get up and out of his car. When we realized he was coming out regardless of what we said, we helped him, all 3 together and tried to prop him against the car which was listing toward the passenger side and keep him still there, but he was adamant about standing up, and all of the sudden, started walking away, down the road in the dark.
The couple followed him, all of us telling him to stop, wait, the rescue was on the way, i stood there and shined the light on them as they walked away. At that point i noticed the blood on my hands from helping him up and out of the car.
My light was on the couple following this guy, and i could see them and not him so well, when they stopped, and the guy in the couple threw up his hands and said 'he just bolted into the woods'.
I started walking up the road to them and by the time i got to about where they said he took off, the ambulance, fire truck, rescue squad, and hiway patrol started showing up.
I was shining my light into the woods where he had went, and the ambulance/rescue squad? pulled up beside me and i told them he was hurt, and had went into the woods about here...

their response: 'he took off? ... well, fuck him' ...

and to the man, that was the response i got from the rest of the rescue units that showed up over the next hour. They towed his car, cleared the scene, fixed the power outage in record time, and left.
Not one person went in search of the person bleeding, dazed and wandering off into the woods trying to escape the supposed help that had come to assist him. There was lots of speculation: was he drunk? was the car stolen? (hell they had the car!) he musta been on something, his race was brought up...but no matter what i said about being there first, and seeing him and his condition, it was pretty much 'he took off, fuck him'.

it was all over by 2am, the power had been restored, and i lay awake all nite worrying that there was a suffering and possibly dead person lying in the woods that nobody gave a shit about but me. I am i now realize an old man for i could not find it in myself to plunge into the woods in the dark searching for a stranger that doesn't want my help, though in need of it, and i am tired of being around people that carry their prejudices and preconceptions and petty concepts of self-importance while pretending to do their jobs.

i am sadly content that i am alone after all, so i have no one to be disappointed in but myself. And i am sorry that i feel this way.

i hope i haven't killed your thread CatWoman. i just had to get this off my chest.

dp