No Good Can Come of This...

Last Night, El 3atal and I went to eat at one of our favorite restaurants, after we concluded our meal as we were paying, we noticed an unfortunate traffic occurrence outside. A young muhajibeh had, in her zeal to avoid parked cars, run directly onto the small median coming into a very small circle. She had managed to drive her front two tires up onto the curb and was sitting on the median. The entire front end was straddling the median with the tires on either side.

The flustered girl decided to try and put the car in reverse and drive off the median the way she had come on. However, the tires were suspended so that neither could get traction. One was close enough to the curb that she burned rubber in her impotent revving to free the car. She then got out to look at the car. After seeing the predicament, she got back in and... REVVED THE CAR AGAIN! Yikes! I'm not sure what good she thought it would do, but... that was her decision.

Next, a group of young shebab decided to help her. Having been fortunate enough to receive the help of this age group when I needed it (in the US, but still), I appreciate their willingness to pitch in. About 5 guys came to help her. Now, in order to avoid damaging the undercarriage, what was needed was for them to lift the car and move it off the median. Sadly, they rather took more of the push-and-shove approach. I was horrified and imagined all sorts of terrible things happening to the car. They did manage to shove the car off of the median.

After it was level again on the street, the car sat in the middle of the road for an additional 10-15 minutes. Several of the shebab had the young lady open the hood and looked in. What they expected to see, I'm not certain. None of them looked to be particularly skilled in car repair. But, look they did, and then one of the shebab got in the car and drove up the street, passed the circle, and made a U turn after it (yeah, I couldn't figure that one out either). He then brought it back and double-parked it across the street.

We couldn't quite figure out what the young lady was waiting on. I decided maybe she wanted to file a police report. El 3atal said he couldn't imagine as the police would probably want to make her pay for the curb that was damaged. I agreed, but said wouldn't the insurance only cover it with the police report. El 3atal's clever idea was to call the insurance company, say that she had parked the car and, while she was inside the curb had dashed out and run underneath the car! I don't think that would have been believed. What do you think? As we walked out of the restaurant, I could see fluid leaking under the car and expect that she either damaged the radiator, brake fluid lines, or transmission. Won't that be fun to explain to mom and dad?

The moral of the story is... well, I'm not sure there is one. Don't drive over curbs? If your child is foolish enough to drive over a curb take away both her license and the keys? If you have a young, scared daughter save us the danger and keep her off the streets? At any rate...

Happy curb appeal!