The One About the Car Crash

I have an awesome friend.

Her husband calls her Red.

Why?

Because she has great flammin' red hair.

We had an adventure together a few years ago when she was a newcomer to the Middle East.

This is our story...Red wrote it. Only she could capture the raucousness of the entire situation...

"I was a newcomer in every sense of the word having only moved a few weeks before, and Apricot Lady, from my point of view, was a veteran. Learning to live in another country has many highs and lows. Apricot Lady had been through many of them plus some. I was still going up that first dreadful climb on the roller coaster. She was showing me some of the ropes and had taken me out shopping for my family’s new home. The reward for all that hard work was going to be the country’s favorite fruit cocktail.

The lack of available parking is a very common scenario, so when Apricot Lady found a space directly in front of the door to the cocktail joint we had found our prize! Apricot Lady veered the car to the right claiming current occupation on that parking space when we heard a raw grinding and felt a slight tilt. Both of our faces appeared blank to each other when there was a knock on the driver window. Since I was hearing gibberish without the luxury of subtitles, I could only assume the man was discussing raw grinds and weird tilts with her so I cranked my head to the right side of the car looking for evidence that would support my hypothesis. I noticed a caved in back passenger door that fit perfectly into a van’s back corner bumper sufficiently holding our vehicle off the ground.

Apricot Lady got back in the car, “I’m not really sure what’s going on, but that man seems to have some sort of plan he’s rigging together as we speak.” We had questions we wanted answered. Who was the owner of the van? Where was the owner? Should we write a note? What do insurance companies require you to do? We would hear no answers to any of these questions, only a cry from the general population to fix this shameful scene and put some self-respect back in the lives of these poor Western women. Apricot Lady did ask one question that seemed to get a relatable response, “Is there any damage to the car?” to which the reply was, “Well, your husband won’t be very happy.”

Apricot Lady was studying the crowd forming behind our vehicle, which also happened to be in the middle of the street….a very busy street. “Oh my goodness! Look!” I cranked my head to the back of the car to view approximately 12 men crowded around the bumper prepared to act like a crane. In one big heave the car was removed from the van and placed gently inside the respective “lines” of the parking spot. After being told we wouldn’t have to do anything else and we gave the men our thank yous, they returned to their previous positions as if nothing had occurred. We claimed our yummy fruit cocktails and left the scene. Seriously, that van had no damage. That driver was none the wiser and we got some positive benefits to group oriented culture."