Wake Up Call...or Hit

I left for work without my cell phone, I knew I had left it in its charger when I pulled out of my garage but didn't feel like going back in the house to get it. It was 5:30 and I was still wearing my pajamas because it is Wednesday. On Wednesdays my morning workout is a swim so I just grab my suit and a bag packed with work clothes and go. I throw a long coat over my PJ's in case I run into a maintenance man on my way to the locker room.

It was 5:45 and still dark, I had just crossed Roosevelt Road on Central Avenue, going South, when a very small man walked into the street, without looking before he crossed, and I hit him. "What do you mean, 'hit him'?" Asked Alex, my student. "I mean, I was in my car while it was moving and he stepped in front of my car before I could stop it from moving."
"I can't tell if she's kidding" says Sam.
"She's not kidding." says Cheryl.

I swerved but still hit him with my front passenger side bumper/fender/door. I pulled over right away and saw that he lay in clump in the street. "Oh MY GOD!" I thought, "Oh my God, please let him be okay." I turned on my hazard lights, jumped out of the car and ran to where he lay, unmoving. I yelled at cars, "Please someone call 911!" Cars kept driving by, one didn't even slow down as it passed me hunched over the man in the street. I don't think they saw us,it was still dark, did i say that?
On that corner is a diner, I ran into the diner and asked them to call 911. One of the waitresses followed me out, "We called the police they're on their way," she told me.
I said, "he just walked out in the street, he just walked right out."
The little man sat up and looked at me. "Oh no, please stay still. An ambulance is coming to check you out. Stay here." He said nothing, just got up and tried to walk away. "No, no, no, you have to wait here."

He was about 60 years old, very wrinkled weathered face, wore a Carhart jacket, jeans and a white baseball cap, which was still in the street. He bent over to pick up his lunch box. "Voy trabajar," he said. The waitress and I made him stay...on the sidewalk, out of the street. She told me to grab his baseball cap so I did and handed it to him. He still was trying to leave and I was having a hard time remembering any Spanish at all. "Esperate," I told him.

Very soon a cop car pulled up, then another and another and then an ambulance. There were two officers, who spoke Spanish, talking to the man. He refused to go to the hospital. One officer told me to calm down, I was crying a little, the man was fine he wasn't hurt. Another officer took my license and insurance information and wrote a report. Soon the waitress left and all but two officers left, one spoke with the little man and the other was finishing the report. My Spanish is bad, all I could figure out from the conversation taking place between the little man and the officer was that he had no identification and no phone. He did not know how old he was but he was born in 1945. He denied that he was even hit by a car, he said he was walking and he fell. Maybe he really believes that. He had his hood up over his head and was not looking to see if a car was coming, he probably doesn't even know how he wound up on the ground. He asked the officer for directions to Minuteman where he was going to work. The Spanish speaking officer leaned inside the report taking officer's car and asked if he knew where there was a Minuteman. It was only me and the little man on the sidewalk. He looked at me and asked me something, but he spoke so quietly and with a very heavy accent. I had to say, "lo siento, no hablo Espanol." He fingered the torn strap on his lunch box with laborer's hands; very large for his frame, grand knuckles and dark nails.

He walked toward the the Spanish speaking officer and again said, "voy trabajar." The Spanish speaking officer gave him directions and helped him cross the street, because he wasn't looking again...just crossing with his head down watching his feet.

I cannot believe I actually hit a man today. My side mirror hangs by wires and there are dents in front passenger side bumper/fender/door to remind me that it really did happen.