Bike Madness

This morning, I was happily walking out of Black & Brew with my coffee when I saw a girl on a bicycle tipped over on 10th Street, just past the Pub on Passyunk. Apparently, this guy parked on the side of the street, opened his car door without looking and knocked her off her bike. He jumped out of the car, this fat old guy with a pot belly and white hair, and the first thing he did was to examine his car door to make sure it wasn't scratched. This is while the girl is still lying on the road. She stood up. The girl had on her bike helmet and was wearing hospital scrubs, obviously on her way to work. She wasn't bleeding or anything, but she was scraped up.

He pointed his finger at her, yelling, "I wouldn't care if I killed you! I wouldn't care if you were dead! Watch where your going, you fuck!"

I said, "Dude, are you serious? Are you seriously saying that out loud? I saw what happened. It's not her fault." (I actually didn't see what happened, but she clearly hadn't run a stop sign and she wouldn't have been hit by the door if he glanced back before opening it. I kept calling him "dude," I don't know why. It was like my default language suddenly).

He said, "You stay out of it, you fuck!"

I said something else and then I said, "Dude, you better watch your blood pressure, you're going to have a stroke."

He said, "You keep walking and shut it!" Like, seriously, was he going to beat the crap out of me and her? I asked her if she was okay and she said she was. Later, after I emailed A. about this, he asked me if I had called 911. It didn't even occur to me. I suppose I should have. Instead, I was imagining how I could've pretended to be a cop or a detective and threatened to run his plates or some crap. It sort of ruined my morning for awhile, mostly because I couldn't get over the fact that he would check out his car door before he would check to see if she was okay. Then I thought about The Stranger and how some action happens at a funeral that makes everyone think the central character is cold; it's some inappropriate thing he says or does that overshadows every other action he has from that moment on and possibly even leads to his death (can't remember). So, I was trying to give the old guy credit, like maybe he just found out that his wife is dying of cancer, or maybe he had to put his dog to sleep the day before, or maybe his brother was hit and killed by a unicycle or a passel of clowns riding trikes--because I couldn't accept that someone could be such a TOTAL DICK.