United Disaster

          So, I was minding my own business, herding my children to the car in the United Parking lot when an alarming sight caught my eye: a man who was probably in his seventies was putting his cart back up after unloading his groceries, and as he turned to walk back to his car after putting the cart up, he tripped over the wheel of the cart.  He stumbled pretty hard before falling even harder and I gasped, “Oh my goodness!” and instructed my children to get off to the side of the road and ran over to help the feller.  He was having trouble getting up and I was figuring he probably had a broken hip or something.  When I got to him I got down on my knees and was in such a hurry to get on his level and inspect him that I busted my left kneecap on the road.  I asked him frantically, “Hey, are you alright?  Can you move?  Does anything hurt?”

“My pride’s a little busted,” he said as I helped him into a sitting position.  By then others were coming over the help and at the site of his scraped forearms and how he was shaking I started crying.  I was helped him stand up as others asked if he was OK and when he was on his feet steadily again he handed me a hankie.

“I’m OK, no need for all that,” he said and I thanked him for the hankie, “I’m not hurt at all,” he told the ladies who were fussing over him, “if that’s what it takes to get a bunch of pretty girls to fuss over me I should fall down more often.”  I blew my nose in his hankie and then wondered if I should have done that.  I doubted he wanted a snotty hankie back.  His wife might want to know what on earth he’d been up to if he came home with a make-up smeared, snotty hankie.  I kind of held it in a position where he could snatch it back if he wanted but he seemed in a pretty big hurry to get out of there.  I think he was embarrassed.  I was horrified that his arm was bleeding and felt like I shouldn’t let him leave without helping him but he assured me he had a wife who would doctor him.  Then he pointed to my bleeding knee and said I needed to take care of my own self.  I’ve had plenty of battle scars in my day but this was my first one obtained during a rescue mission.  He went to his vehicle and I went to my own vehicle.  Then with a start, I realized I was forgetting my children and went back to retrieve them.  I apologized for nearly forgetting them in public and Makayla was horrified that the man had fallen and that my knee was bleeding.

“Mommy, was he hurt?  Is he going to the doctor?  Does your knee hurt?” she asked.

“He was more embarrassed than anything, I think,” I said, “And my knee doesn’t hurt at all.”

“That man could have kidnapped you mommy,” Caleb said, “I thought he was going to kill you.  I would beat him up if he to.”

“Bubba, that old man wasn’t going to kill Mommy,” Makayla mused, “Did you see how old he was?  He could barely even walk.  And when he did walk he fell down.  Mommy was just helping him because he couldn’t get up.  No one could kidnap mommy anyway.  Look how big she is.”

I gave her a look and said, “No one is going to get kidnapped, the man is fine, and I’m sorry y’all were scared.  Sheesh.  Let’s go home.”

And that is what happened last night.