Another Monday

It was just a Monday. Nothing spectacular, nothing exciting. My roommate was bar tending at Kings so I decided to stop down for a cocktail or two. I have given up drinking soda so I decided to have a Tanqueray, Triple sec, and pineapple juice. It was just me and the barkeep until his father strolled in. The Buffalo Bills were playing the Cleveland Browns on Monday Night Football and being in Upstate NY, Buffalo was the team many people rooted for.

I had just ordered my second drink when all of a sudden I saw a dark skinned, overweight kid make his way to the bar door. This kid was maybe, eleven-- twelve, tops. He was absolutely hysterically crying. At first I wanted to laugh because I didn't know what else to do. It was so out of the ordinary.

He finally was able to say that he was in an accident on the bridge. The bridge was about 100 or so yards from where we were and given the weather conditions it wasn't really a surprise.

Sure enough, we look outside and see a small SUV plunged head first into a cement wall. It was completely horizontal across the lane, obstructing traffic on this poorly lit bridge. I stepped outside the bar to get a better look at what was going on. I was going to check it out but it was one thing in particular that changed the way I reacted. The boy said that there was a baby inside.

I don't know why, but that was the trigger for me. That was all I needed to hear. That was what sent me into rescue mode. I am almost embarrassed now, thinking back on it, that it was only the mentioning of the baby that got me to react so swiftly.

When I heard that, I told my roommate to call 911. I then immediately took off for the vehicle on a dead sprint. I had hurt my ankle a few weeks before playing basketball, but I wouldn't have felt anything at that point in time.

It's strange. In that short of time, from my run from the bar to the car, I imagined the worst. Was I going to have to perform CPR? Was I going to have to decide who to save? I honestly didn't know what to expect. I was purely in reactionary mode. At times like that there is no time for thinking. You just react.

I got up to the vehicle and there was a woman, half on the ground, half inside the left passenger side door. The woman was on oxygen already and was desperately trying to free the infant that sat idly in a car seat. I went to the other door and climbed in the rear seat. My only goal at that point was to get that baby out of the vehicle.

The accident occurred on the crest of the bridge, so that meant it was going to be extremely difficult for oncoming traffic to see the obstruction. The weather had turned the bridge into a sheet of ice, so the likelihood of being hit by another car seemed to be the greatest threat. All I wanted to do was get that damn baby to safety.

The dome light inside the vehicle didn't work, so I used my phone to give me the illumination needed to get the infant free. I ended up just ripping the belt apart, and grabbing the little boy. Now, looking back, it may seem like not that big of a deal, but at that point in time, I was convinced we were all going to be crushed by a semi coming across the bridge.

One car DID come racing over the bridge while I was working on the car seat. I didn't get a good look at it but I did hear them hit the breaks and swerve. I wouldn't go as far as saying it was a close call but it was sure as hell closer than I wanted to deal with.

So here I am, on the Washington Avenue bridge, in 20 degree weather, holding a little black baby in my arms and trying to convince the woman on oxygen to stand up. I told her that we have to get out of the road but she was just so damned stubborn. She just sat there, crying, with a tube of oxygen running to her nose. Meanwhile, the boy who came running into the bar, stood nearby crying his heart out. I tried to comfort him, holding him close and telling him that he did a wonderful job.

It was simply surreal. Holding that baby in my arms, trying to calm down a pre-teen boy who was just in a car accident. Everything. It was just so odd. I was sitting in a bar, watching football and drinking booze, and the next thing I know, I am holding a baby and hugging a small kid. You can't make this kind of thing up.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, the police and ambulance showed up. I didn't have much to say so I just handed the child off to the paramedics and let them do their work. I stayed a few minutes and tried to talk to the boy that came running into the bar for help. Tried to reassure him that he did a fantastic job. That he was very brave for what he did. But still he cried.

I guess I am not as good as I thought I was.

So I let the professionals take over and I walked back to the bar. No thank you. No "nice job". Really, it is a microcosm of my life. No good deed goes unpunished. Or, in my case, noticed. I don't really care about that though. I have long since given up on having people notice anything that I do. I just do what I do and hope that it is the right thing.

I guess the whole thing wasn't that big of a deal to anyone else, but it was for me. Because for me it was a test. When things got hairy, I didn't waste time. I went into action swiftly and efficiently. So now I know. When the proverbial crap hits the fan-- I KNOW that I can act under pressure.

That is all I have to say about that.