Thursday, July 5, 2007

PART 3

Part 3- Feeling a little hot, she wonders how long its going to take for somebody to show up.
She feels calm. She mentions to the pre-K teacher how she just had told her mom and husband about a photographer in Australia whose 3 year old daughter had died from getting locked in their car. And how they had the conversation about locking the doors of the car when they got home so that the 4 year old would not get stuck in there. The secretary comes out and says that the fire department is coming. She soon hears sirens, and also sees people lining up to get their children from pre-K. The fire department is finally here, and people start to come out and look over their fence. She starts feeling like she has an audience. The baby wakes up and is looking around. One fireman starts trying to get into one side of the car. Another very official looking fireman has her sign something saying something about it being ok for them to get into the car. Another pre-k teacher comes over, leaving the onlookers of the pre-k lines and offers a cell phone to call anyone. She says that her husband is too far away to make it with the spare key. It would take over 20 minutes for him to get there. And then she looks at the baby. He is starting to fuss. He looks at her and pouts. She is peeking at him through the glass with her hands cupped around her eyes. She feels pretty calm. Another firefighter starts on the other side of the car to try and unlock it. They all start acting a little bothered that they can't get the doors unlocked. Looking through the glass, the baby starts crying a little more. She says, its ok. One of the pre-k teachers comes over and starts to rub her shoulders. And that was it. The transfer of stress. She feels the stress from the pre-k teacher come into her shoulders and tears start to sting her eyes. Her shoulders are tensing up, and she looks at the firemen. They are now trying to get the keys off the seat. One of them mentions that it might be faster to call a locksmith. She thinks...um how long has the baby been in there. And how much longer can we wait? She mentions that she does have insurance that will send a locksmith, and somebody hands her a cell phone. She thinks to herself that she should have just done this in the beginning, or at least have called her husband. But she was thinking this is an emergency..and in a emergency you go through the proper channels. She is greeted on the phone by a lady who is very polite, and when hearing that there is a baby in the car asks if emergency personnel have been contacted. She says "yes" and that is when she overhears one of the firemen say "well I guess we can break the window"...and then the lady on the phone says..."well I can't promise you that anyone will be there in the next 10 minutes" and thats when she yells, "JUST BREAK THE WINDOW!"
She hears somebody yell "wait" and she looks into the car in a blur of tears and sees that one of the firemen has the keys on the end of some wire and he is trying to pull them through the seal of the window. She runs around to the side of the car where he is pulling them through, like a cat getting skinny to fit through a fence, the keys slip out.
She yanks them off the wire, whips them into the car door, opens the door and flips the lock open. She moves fast- yanks open the sliding door, sobbing now, as she unbuckles and grabs out the baby. Both of them crying, she pulls his clothes off his sticky body. She hugs him, and says over and over again how sorry she is. A fireman comes over and looks at the baby. He is crying but seems to be ok. The whole group- minus the firemen head inside. They are greeted by the 4 year old who says, "Mom, you got Tucker!"

1 comment:

Jenn said...

Well, you sweet thing - that is such a mom-story, bless your heart! Made me want to give you hug and cry with you. Would love to meet you sometime - my husband, Ryan, thinks highly of Jay (they work together). Blessings to a courageous mom!