Chivalry

Wednesdays I drive the gym car pool.  My kid doesn't have gym, but we drive right by on the way home, and Wednesday is one of my early days.  


So I'm at out office dropping off paperwork, a little distracted, because I don't want to be late getting the girls.  I gather my metal clipboard with storage area (a.k.a The Brain) and throw it in my bag, then I grab the little file box where the week's papers live, and squeeze it in the bag.  Then I put it all in the back, hop into the car, and pull out onto Fowler avenue.  Click, Woosh.


The back opens.  In my rear view mirror, I see my lonely little bag with my file box and clipboard peaking out, sitting on the asphalt.  Pull over, hop out, start running.  The light at 56th street changes, and cars are heading toward my bag.  The first 5 cars stop, and go around, the panic lessens slightly when. . . . . .  A huge SUV, black, menacing, jaws wide open, teeth gnashing rolls over the bag, tires straddled, nothing is hit - but the back draft starts to scatter objects.  And   IT   IS   ON!  Cars rushing, things flying, I know the next large car will break open the file and protected patient information will be scattered all over Fowler avenue.  


And a passerby, wearing a dark mask and flowing cape steps into traffic and STOPs them all.  Thank you, dark stranger.  He helps me gather my things, quickly, wordlessly.  (OK - he might NOT have been wearing a cape, but he deserves one).  I actually thought he was going to get killed.  It is not like he hesitated, or signaled anyone to stop until he was in the street.

Chivalry is not dead.  But it has gotten stupid.


I am not ungrateful.  I am just glad that my knight did not die. I really prefer having to replace all of my stuff to holding someone's mangled body while I thank them for a kindly deed gone askew.  The good note is that the only casualty was my clip board which I promptly replaced.  My sphygmomometer is a little wanky, but seems to continue to be accurate when the needle doesn't stick, no patient information was scattered in the wind, and I made it to school in time to pick up the girls.