Good deeds

I did two good deeds today. The first one was saving a child's life. Well, maybe, anyway. A friend and I were walking south, home from school drop-off, on the narrow street that intersects our large one. We were chattering away (what, me, talk?) as we crossed the foot of a church driveway from which a large shiny black SUV was slowly reversing out. We hardly broke stride because we felt so confident that the driver saw us, as indeed s/he did. S/he braked. I love the fact that pedestrians have the right of way here (as they do in the UK) and drivers actually let them use it (as drivers in the UK do not). In England I'd definitely have checked whether the car planned to carry on regardless, hitting me if it must. Anyway, we walked safely past and the car resumed reversing. A tiny little boy, age 3 or so, on a tiny little bike, brand new, came zipping past us, heading north. I glanced vaguely round for his grown-up and realised he didn't have one anywhere in sight. I turned and grabbed his bike to halt him before standing behind the still-slowly-reversing car. The boy's head height was below the tops of the SUV's tires and it was impossible that the driver could have seen the child. The little boy looked surprised, the car came to an abrupt halt when I appeared in its rear window. My friend and I scanned the road for a grown-up in charge of the child. Finally we located her, riding a bike on the street several yards ahead and separated from the sidewalk by a wide grass verge. She had paused at a T-junction controlled by a stop sign. She turned to look for her son, spotted me holding onto him, and glared at me as if I were a madwoman. I called out 'The car was reversing!' but she didn't seem to hear or understand. I let go of the boy and he caught up to his mom. Luckily my friend was wheeling her own bike with a child trailer attached, which lent us credence as upstanding maternal figures rather than potential kidnappers. My friend and I walked on and continued our previous conversation. Not until a few hours later did I mentally return to the scene and think with a shock, 'I nearly saw a child killed today.' At school pick-up in the playground the friend and I reviewed the incident and agreed that it was all slightly unbelievable, but really happened.

My next good deed was to serve tea to the men cutting down a large tree in the empty yard next door. They said 'thank you'. And they gave me a log to use as a garden bench. We have a lot more light in our yard and kitchen now.