Ice Cream Incident

"Holy crap! Are you alright?" the man asked as he ran toward us.

"Yes, I think so." I looked to my right to see if Gavin was hurt. He seemed fine. We were both on the ground. I tried to remember how we got there.

"Did you see that?" yelled a man a few feet away.

As my head cleared, I could hear many voices calling, shouting, screaming. I looked up. There was a car protruding from the building next to us and broken glass was scattered all around us.

"Don't try to get up yet." I said to Gavin.

"I'm scared. I don't want to be here. I want to go home." I could see the fear in his eyes and hear it in his voice.

"It's okay, Baby. We are going to be alright, I promise."

A man appeared in front of us. "Let me help you up." He held out his hand to me. I grabbed it and then did the same for Gavin.

"Don't try to brush the glass off you, " I told him, "It will cut yur hands."

"I'll jump it off!" he replied and began bouncing in place. As more and more pieces fell from his clothing, I could hear them crunching under his sneakers.

"Excuse me , Ma'am," a police officer was tapping me on the shoulder, "Can you come with me, please? We have set up a triage center over there. Do you see the ambulances? Once you've been checked out, we need to get your statement. There are officers just to the left of the triage."

"Okay, thank you." I was still quite dazed, but was glad to be pointed in the direction of help.

"Mommy, are we going home now?" Gavin asked.

"No, Baby, we have to see the doctors to make sure we are not hurt. Then we will tell the police what we saw. Can you remember anything that happened?"

"I remember walking on the sidewalk. You said we could get ice cream!" I was glad to hear his happy personality returning to his voice.

"I know, Sweetheart. We'll have to wait until later for ice cream. Look at the ice cream parlor!"

"Why did that person drive their car into the wall? Did they thik it was drive through ice cream?" Gavin laughed a little at his own joke. I laughed a little too. I was glad that he was not completely traumatized. He'll probably have nightmares tonight though, I thought as we approached the triage center.

"Hi, my name is Nancy. I'm an EMT. I need to take your vials. Do you feel any pain anywhere?"

"No, I think we are both fine," I told her, "Gavin, does any part of your body hurt?"

"Just my butt where I fell down."

"Okay, Gavin, I'm going to feel your bones and you tell me if it hurts when I press on you okay?" She began to run her hands over his arms and legs and press on his abdomen He didn't indicate any pain or injury.

"You're tickling me!" he laughed and wiggled away from the paramedic.

"You should follow up with your own doctor and his pediatrician in a few days just to be on the safe side, but it looks like you tw0 were very lucky."

"Thank you, I will make an appointment as soon as we get home." We headed toward the police cars.

"Hi, I'm here to give my statement." I told the officer who looked my way.

"Great. Please come this way and tell me what you saw."

"My son and I were walking down the sidewalk."

"We were going to Trudy's for ice cream!" Gavin interjected.

"Suddenly, there was a loud crash. I don't think I saw anything. I remember a man asking if we were alright. That's when I realized we were on the ground and there was a car sticking out of the front of Trudy's."

"Did you see the driver? Do you know if the vehicle had been driving erratically?"

"No, I didn't see anyone other than the man who helped me up. I wasn't paying attention to the street. I was talking to my son about ice cream."

"I wanted chocolate and strawberry together with whipped cream and sprinkles!"

"That sounds delicious, Gavin. Do you remember anything that happened that your mom didn't see? Anything you thought might be weird?"

"Only the blue car."

"What blue car? Tell me about the blue car."

"There was a blue car coming down the street from the other way. The guy in the back seat has his window down and his hand out."

Gavin looked at me, then back at the officer. "My bus driver says to always keep your hands inside, never put them out the window."

"That is a good rule. You should always follow that rule."

"I do, but this guy didn't. He stuck his hand out and he was holding something, too."

"What was he holding, Gavin?"

"I don't know. It might have been a phone. It looked like he was taking pictures with a phone the way my sister does. Then the white car came in front and I couldn't see the blue car anymore."

"The white care came between you and the blue car?"

"Yes, then it drove right into Trudy's."

"Did you see the guy in the blue car? Can you tell me what he looked like?"

"He had on a black hat, like baseball players wear and his shirt had black sleeves."

What color was the skin on his hands? Pink like yours or brown like mine?"

"In between."

"Tan, like Dora the Explorer?" I asked him.

"Yes, with black lines and squiggles all over them."

"Lines and squiggles? Like a tattoo?" the officer asked.

"I don't know. Kinda like he drew on his hands with magic marker."

"Did you get a good look at the lines and squiggles? If I showed you pictures, would you be able to tell me if they were the ones you saw?"

"Maybe. Do you have pictures of the guy I saw's hands?"

"We might. We need you to tell us if we do," the officer looked at me and asked, "Can we bring him down to the station to look at books?"

A cold chill went right through my body. I don't want my son involved in a gang war. I don't want this to be happening to us. I just wanted to buy him some ice cream

"Can we do this another day? I really want to get home."

"Ma'am, the sooner we can identify the persons involved, the sooner we can get them off the street."

"But who knows if you even have pictures of the right hands. What if they saw Gavin's face and want to silence him? How can I make sure he's safe?"

"Once we get this guy off the street, your son will be safe."

"What about retribution? Who knows how many people saw my son on the street today? Has anyone else told you about the tattooed hands?"

"Ma'am, I couldn't give you that information even if I had it. Just like I can't tell any other witnesses what your son saw. Please, just come to the station and have him look at photos, He may not even see anything he recognizes."

"Alright, but I have to talk to my husband first."

I took my phone out of my purse and dialed. How did we get into this mess? Why us? We are nobodies, why did we have to be walking down this street today of all days?

"Hello?"

"Hi, Honey. You're never going to believe what happened to us today..."