Just knock on the door, woman!

Two nights ago Kev and I were enjoying a quiet night at home. I was sitting on the couch marking, and we were enjoying a television show together. Nice. Ahhhh... I love those kind of nights. They are normal and peaceful.

We were talking about something, I can't really remember what, when suddenly I heard a "SCRREEECHHHHCCRRAAASSSHHHBAAANNGG" sound coming from outside. I sat for a minute, because Kevin was talking and I was trying to take in what he was saying, all while thinking "What WAS that?"

When he finished his sentence I broke in, "Did you HEAR that?" I jumped up and ran to the window and we could hear the footsteps of our landlord upstairs doing the same thing. I peeked through the blinds and saw a small firefly-type car sitting backwards on the lawn. One blinker was on, and it wasn't a car I had seen before. Looking through the window, I thought I saw a woman sitting in the driver's seat.

"I think someone just crashed onto our lawn!" I exclaimed. Kevin ran over to the window to look, and sure enough, he came to the same conclusion.

This isn't the first time this has happened. It happened around this time last year as well but that person went all the way across the lawn and into the neighbor's yard. We live on a really busy street and people FLY down it. The speed limit is 60 km/h but I rarely see people going slower than 80. That's being generous. When it rains, as it was that night, the road gets slick and people get stupid. Our landlord tells us that this happens on average of once a year.

We were already in our pajamas when this accident happened, so we ran to throw on some clothes. By the time we got outside THE WOMAN WAS GONE. She had taken out our neighbor's tree, the momentum had hurled humungous branches onto the roof of my car and our landlord's truck and she missed our cars by mere inches. For all she knew, she could have hit them! Did she stop? Did she pause for even more than five minutes? Did she possibly think that maybe she should KNOCK ON THE DOOR OF THE OWNER OF THE LAWN SHE WAS NOW PERCHED UPON? Apparently not.

By the time we got outside, there was nothing left but a massacred tree. She really took out that tree. Her car MUST have some damage. The tree is normal-sized...it's not even one of those trees that was working on growing. It's one of those lovely trees, much like a cherry tree. It was working its way toward blossoming and now it is dead. Her car snapped it off at the base and pulled the roots up. All that was left was the base and a pile of splintered wood.

It made me pause and think. I was shocked that the woman hadn't even bothered to stop and talk with us. She could have done some major damage. She needed to take responsibility for her actions. If she had sideswiped our cars would she still have driven off? I wonder. I really wonder.