the wheelchair incident
Last night I was standing outside The Mezzanine with a friend, when I suddenly saw a homeless woman in a wheelchair pinned under the wheel of a giant garbage truck. We started screaming to the driver to stop the truck, and he did just in the nick of time. The wheelchair was completely totalled, and the driver had to drive in reverse to unpin the wheelchair from the tire. But the woman, while definitely injured, was conscious. While waiting for the ambulance and police to arrive, the woman kept screaming, “my baby, my baby.” Feeling a deep pit in my stomach I noticed a little hooded swaddling in her arms.
At this point, I’m completely disturbed by the situation, and walk over to her so I can get a closer look at the baby. It turns out that the “baby” was simply a pile of blankets. The woman had sores all over her body from what looked like a flesh-eating bacteria. Finally the police and the ambulance arrive. After talking with everyone at the scene, one of the police officers mutters under his breath that this is not the first time this woman has apparently thrown herself in front of a truck. What a tragic scenario for everyone, and especially for the woman in the wheelchair.