At the moment I have been busy moving my stuff over to Bill’s – yep now, I’ll be officially in Manhattan! 🙂 🙂
Last Saturday it was about 6.30pm and we had three of my cases full of stuff (being in a furnished place meant I don’t really have much more than what I came over with) and my document box with all my important documents as well as my backpack with my Bose stereo carefully wrapped in towels so I could ensure it was all looked after.
We were getting a cab from my place back to Chelsea and luckily we had no trouble getting one who helped us with all my stuff and promptly started on our way.
When we were nearing Queensboro Plaza (a huge above ground station and railway junction) we were slowed down in the traffic due to an accident. There was a group of about ten or so 13yo boys standing around trying to get the attention of the cars going past and being basically… annoying. As we went past, they were on Bill’s side of the cab and yelled “HEYYY!” Bill replied “HEYYYY!” back. Then before we knew it, the taxi window was smashed and Bill was covered in shards of glass.
What happened was one of the kids had a walking stick and proceeded to smash it through the small window of the back seat of the cab. The driver didn’t realize this had happened and we quickly alerted him to what had gone on and that as there were police right where we were (due to the car accident) he should pull over and get a form for his insurance.
This was the aftermath –
We pulled over (this is a major road, three lanes in each direction) into the middle of the road and in front of the ambulance that was there for the car accident. Bill got out with the driver to walk up to the police and let them know what had happened and I stayed in the cab. They were told to wait until this car accident was cleared and then they would deal with us. Bill was also able to see a paramedic who gave him a bottle of solution to pour over his arm to get rid of all the splinters of glass.
I was still sitting in the cab when guess who walked past? (Well three lanes of traffic away..) THE KID!!! AND… STILL HOLDING THE WALKING STICK!!! So… the feral-Aussie-chick in me came out and I let out the most horrendous “HEYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!” mixed with “OIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” that I have ever yelled. The kid immediately turned around and recognized me in the cab. To put it mildly, he basically pooped himself and bolted – running down beside the roadway. I opened the door to jump out and chase him but then I saw Bill and the driver walking back. I was screaming “BILL!! THERE HE IS!” Bill motioned to me to be quiet. He then goes “I told him not to worry about it…” Now I interpreted that to mean that he spoke to the kid and let him go… when in fact he spoke to whoever was back there. I didn’t realize this so in my great over dramatic fashion I then cracked it at Bill in the middle of the road. “No Bill… really… I do NOT want to talk to you right at this moment!” I could not BELIEVE he had let the kid go. I then went on to stress how the kid could have killed him and how he will probably go on to do more damage through the night. I was one angry Nellie Cleary.
Poor Bill had no choice but just to stand out in the middle of the road while I sulked and gave him silent treatment in the cab. He then managed to explain what he meant and I was trying to explain what I meant. He didn’t realize I had seen everything and knew what had happened and I didn’t realize that he was talking about something different. We had a complete communication breakdown at a time when you really shouldn’t have to be explaining what each other was saying!!
About 30 minutes had passed and we were still waiting in the middle of the road and all these cars speeding past us. The policewoman came over and said we shouldn’t be there and we should run across the two lanes, jump the barrier and wait on the footpath. So we did just that… omg here I was with my handbag trying to jump this barrier and not scratch the leather. This was is the barrier we jumped –
And this was what the traffic was like –
We waited another 30 or so minutes and in the end I was getting somewhat impatient (Jenelle… impatient?! Noooo!) and the cab driver was getting nowhere with them, so I signaled to the police to wind their windows down and yelled out across the traffic lanes “SHOULD WE STILL JUST WAIT HERE OR SHOULD WE GO TO THE POLICE STATION?!?”
They told us to get the taxi to go around the corner and they will come around there in about 10 minutes and speak to us. Ugh… so we told the taxi driver what to do – which meant he had to jump the barrier, then run across two lanes, to get back to the taxi. I told Bill I refused to watch as I just knew he would get hit by a car as he didn’t seem to have much of a clue about anything. Bill tried to tell him “Go… NOW!” but I don’t think he even understood that… he ran right across in front of another cab… but made it.
We waited for the police and they eventually came around to see us. Check out how spooky the area ‘around the corner’ was –
Anyway, Bill came and said they wanted to talk to me. They asked me what I saw and I told them in my most excitable nature. As such, they probably only understood one of every five words I was saying. It was done and the taxi driver got his insurance form.
We made it back to Chelsea (the driver didn’t charge us!), got my stuff into the apartment and still couldn’t believe what had happened. A twenty minute taxi ride ended up taking over two hours. Just thinking over it – Bill was sprayed with glass in a near death experience, yelling like a feral, running across two lanes of traffic, jumping road barriers, hanging out with crazy cab drivers and my first chat with the NYPD.
Life is never uneventful here. Never!
So we went to celebrate at the Outback Steakhouse!