I Remember
Around 1980 I was downtown applying for a loan for another stupid boat. It was taking all day. When my loan guy broke for lunch, I stepped outside to look for a coffee shop. A young woman stood nearby shivering in the cold. It was January. It felt like around five degrees. I remembered that she'd been there when I first entered the bank a couple hours earlier.
"You okay?" I asked her.
She smiled shyly and nodded yes.
Later, the loan approved, I left the bank. The woman was still there.
"Hi," I said. "Is there anything I can do to help you?"
"I'm waiting for my ride," she said. "I hope he didn't forget me."
I waved the problem away. "Come on, kiddo, you got a ride home."
In the car, with the heater on high, I spread the car blanket over her arms and chest. "Where to?"
She sat back, relaxed. The car felt bone-crackingly cold to me, but at least we were out of the wind, and the heater was beginning to warm up. "API," she replied casually.
Oh, my God, I thought. Alaska Psychiatric Institute.
On the way, she talked. "I'm being abused. I went to see a lawyer about it."
"I'm sorry. What did the lawyer say?"
"He said he'd see what he can do and, if it ever happens again, to be sure to give him a call."
I called the cops when I got home.
**He had a heart he could've used as an ice cube if he'd been a lukewarm drink of swamp water.**
Ouch, stiff neck! Neck exercises are called for. Careful when driving --when backing up you may not be turning your head sufficiently to see behind you!
