The Rip Off

The Rip Off

I was in Lowndes County, Alabama, on a work assignment. Upon finishing, one of the workers on site asked, "Hey man, you like basketball?"

"Heck yeah!"

"Well, Ben Wallace's old high school is right down the street if you wanna check it out and see where he used to play ball."

He gave me some straightforward directions on how to get there. I put my tools and parts in the truck and was on my way. As I was driving, I came up on a side street. The voice inside my head told me, "Turn right here." This, of course, was not the direction to the high school, but I always do what the voice in my head tells me to do.

I made the left turn. not knowing where I was or where I was going. About a mile down a small country road, I noticed a young woman pulled over on the side of the road. She was on a cell phone frantically flagging me down. I thought, "Oh! She must be having some car trouble. I'll pull over and help her out." I slowed down to pull over. As I passed her vehicle, I saw a white SUV flipped over in the ditch. I got out of my work truck. Immediately, the girl informed me that someone was inside the SUV!

"She's stuck inside, and the door is jammed shut. I can't get her out!" she informed me.

I rushed over to the SUV and just like she said, the door was stuck. There was a lady inside trapped upside down. It was evident that she was hurt. After a couple of failed attempts to open the door, I decided to use brute force.

I was able to squeeze my fingers in between the door hinges. I tugged and was able to dig my fingers in deeper for a better grip. I planted my feet and got in a power stance.

I took a quick deep breath and gave a mighty pull. The most unbelievable thing happened next. The driver’s door popped open! I could feel the adrenalin still rushing through my body. I pried the door all the way open and folded it back against the vehicle. Although thoroughly self-astonished, I knew the mission was not complete. The crash crammed the woman inside into a very cumbersome position. She was still conscience. I managed to finagle her out of her truck, which was not an easy task. She was not petite. I was able to get her out. As soon as I got her on the grass, she yelled out, "My baby!"

"Baby!?" I thought. I turned and looked inside the truck again while the cell phone girl checked on her. In the back passenger seat was a baby boy upside down in a car seat. He was being held up by the security straps. I ran to the rear door on the other side. Just like the first door, this door would not open.

I figured if I did it once, I could do it again. Again, I pried my fingers in between the hinges and gave it a pull. The door didn't budge on my first pull. So, I pulled it again.

And again. And again.

"What the…?"

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get the door open. I ran to the driver's side and pushed back the front door that I had folded open. That allowed just enough room to open the rear door. I crawled inside. Unbuckling the child was way more challenging than I had anticipated. The buckle didn't want to unlock with his body weight hanging down on it. I couldn't use two hands to unlock him. I needed one arm to catch him as I knew as soon as I unbuckled him, he would free fall to the roof of the SUV. I kept working to unlock him. My arm that was braced to catch his fall was starting to burn, and I wondered if I would even be able to catch him if I got the buckle open. "Should I regroup, shake my arms loose, and try again? No! I got to get this boy out of here now!" I gave it another try and finally managed to get the buckle unlocked. The boy fell onto my arm. He was so bloody. He was bleeding from the head, and he wasn't moving. I cradled him and slowly turned around inside the truck. The girl on the cell phone was evidently calling 911 because they pulled up and were outside the SUV.

I couldn't shake the nagging observation that I hadn't heard this boy make a sound the entire time. I held my arms out, and the lady paramedic took the baby and started checking on him. I breathed out a deep nervous breath. I heard her say that he wasn't crying. My insides shook and I feared for the worst. It felt like the world had stopped spinning. The paramedics were tending to the child as I was getting out of the SUV. After I crawled out, that baby boy let out the loudest ear-piercing scream he could muster. It was the most beautiful noise we could've heard.

The lady paramedic continued to care for the baby. The guy paramedic and I put the mom on a stretcher. We wheeled her into the back of the ambulance. He asked me, "How did you get the door open?"

"I ripped it off."

He looked at me, then looked over my shoulder at the turned-over SUV, and back at me again. He nodded his head and said, "You just saved their lives. You're a real hero!"

I never thought about it until he said it. He's right! I'm a real-life hero! 

I often wonder how that kid is doing now. Does he know the story? What is he doing? Is aspiring to be great? Or is he a no-good bum? Is he helping out in the community? Or is he going around robbing people? I wonder.

Anyway, I never did make it to the high school where Ben Wallace played basketball.