I stopped at a red light on Mass. Ave. But she hadn’t hit my truck. She hit
\nin Boston, a couple blocks away
\nfrom the bridge, and a woman in a beat-up
\nold Buick backed into me. Like, cranked her wheel,
\nrammed right into my side. I drove a Chevy
\npickup truck. It being Boston, I got out
\nof the car yelling, swearing at this woman,
\na little woman, whose first language was not English.
\nBut she lived and drove in Boston, too, so she knew,
\nwe both knew, that the thing to do
\nis get out of the car, slam the door
\nas hard as you fucking can and yell things like What the fuck<\/em>
\n were you thinking? You fucking blind? What the fuck<\/em>
\n is going on? Jesus Christ!<\/em> So we swore
\nat each other with perfect posture, unnaturally angled
\nchins. I threw my arms around, sudden
\njerking motions with my whole arms, the backs
\nof my hands toward where she had hit my truck.<\/p>\n
\nthe tire; no damage done. Her car
\nwas fine, too. We saw this while
\nwe were yelling, and then we were stuck.
\nThe next line in our little drama should have been
\nLook at this fucking dent! I’m not paying for this<\/em>
\n shit. I’m calling the cops, lady.<\/em> Maybe we’d throw in a
\nYou’re in big trouble, sister,<\/em> or I just hope for your sake<\/em>
\n there’s nothing wrong with my fucking suspension,<\/em> that
\nsort of thing. But there was no fucking dent. There
\nwas nothing else for us to do. So I
\nstopped yelling, and she looked at the tire she’d
\nbacked into, her little eyebrows pursed
\nand worried. She was clearly in the wrong, I was enormous,
\nand I’d been acting as if I’d like to hit her. So I said
\nWell, there’s nothing wrong with my car, nothing wrong<\/em>
\n with your car…are you OK?<\/em> She nodded, and started
\nto cry, so I put my arms around her and I held her, middle
\nof the street, Mass. Ave., Boston, a couple blocks from the bridge.
\nI hugged her, and I said We were scared, weren’t we?<\/em>
\nand she nodded and we laughed.<\/p>\n