More than a Ramble

Today, my mom, Chris, and I spent the day cleaning out the garage and weeding the gardens. With a bizarre realization of how cool it would be to light the patio and fill the holes between the cemented floor and crooked fenceline with flox, we made our way to Home Depot, Menards, and Wal-Mart. After buying rope light, bug spray, karosene, mulch, and other things we didn't plan on, we left for home.

Nearing our neighborhood, we pulled over for a passing EMC firetruck. One of those little red square ones assigned to blood cleanup and whatnot. Mom mentioned how ironic it would be if it was headed for our house...

Our neighborhood, the Manor as it's frequently referred to as, is a fairly large area that extends from a rather huge intersection and up a hill for a total of about two or three miles. Driving down that intersection we turn off on a four-way that really needs a stoplight. I accent "needs."

About a quarter of a mile before said turn at the intersection, we make a quick lane change; one of the EMC trucks had flagged off the right lane with bright right road flares. We let our eyes follow the trail of sparkling red to the matching flashes ahead, where two ambulances, two cop cars, a firetruck, and the EMC truck that had passed us not two minutes prior, sat empty, their drivers hustling about the street ahead. On the sidewalk, dozens of people--My neighbors-- Gawked at whatever it was that was going on; Our vision was blocked by an ambulance.

"Something happened," I heard myself say... "Something bad happened." Our speed was decreased to five miles an hour. We weren't gawking-- Traffic was easing itself around the paramedics.

We were silent then, for a moment, before I saw something in the road still. A shoe? It looked like a woman's white, heeled shoe. Oh God... Was she alright? We passed the object. Not a shoe...

The object in the road was a small white bicycle seat. "Mom, they were on a bike," I said, saddened that there was another injury involving the increasing number of bicyclists.

I looked ahead, caught a glimpse of a body being loaded into the ambulance right before the doors were closed. I remember the white sheet vividly.

A little boy no older than five stood on the sidewalk beside his little blue bike talking to an officer. The bystanders on the sidewalk watched, hands clasped over their mouths. What was going on, I thought to myself.

Then the clincher.

Laying twisted and mangled on the boulevard lay a small, carnation pink bicycle. "Mommy," I started, tears already welling up behind my eyes; I don't remember the last time I called her 'Mommy'... "It was a little girl, Mommy..." She couldn't have been much older than her little brother, judging by the small size of the bike.

"I didn't need to see that," choked Chris, who turned his eyes away and hid his crying eyes from view. I looked. Blood. It pooled the streets like floodwater, rushing toward the drain with aid from the torrents of water from the firetruck paramedics. "Oh God," I sobbed, looking away.

The sky was grey with the storm that awaited. The streets were silent... I heard a crow caw, but it was nowhere to be seen. Some say that crows are the harbingers of death-- I believe them.

"God's little lambs", they call us. The Shepherd is waiting. What kind of God calls in his sheep by throwing cars at them? What kind of God makes death that painful, then expects us to be alright, because it was simply "her time"? If there is a God, I hate him.

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"Girl struck by car, killed"
Fri, Jun 16, 2006
From staff reports

A 7-year-old girl riding a bicycle was struck by a car and killed Friday night at the intersection of West Circle Drive and Third Street Northwest, Rochester police reported.

Police responded to the accident at 8:15 p.m. Several blocks of West Circle Drive were still closed to traffic at 10 p.m. as police investigated the scene.

The bicycle involved was thrown a long distance. An adult bicycle also was found in a ditch nearby.

Olmsted County Coroner Eric Pfeifer confirmed the child's death at 10:15 p.m. Police didn't release her name Saturday morning.

The girl was crossing West Circle Drive, heading for the Country Club Manor neighborhood west of the four-lane street. She was with a group of other riders, including at least one adult, and was slightly ahead of them, police said.

Cars in several lanes had stopped to allow her to cross, but the southbound car in the west lane continued on and struck the girl, said Sgt. Mike Vik. There is no traffic light at that intersection.

Several witnesses saw the accident, police said. Afterward, residents of Country Club Manor gathered in hushed groups along the road to talk and watch police map the scene.

No one has been cited yet. The accident remains under investigation by the Rochester Police Department's mapping unit, Vik said.
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R.I.P.
Arianna Celeste McNamara