ataxiwardance

the car dragged her some 40 feet before driving away without stopping. i just spoke with Northwestern Memorial and they say she has suffered serious but thankfully non-lethal injuries to her face, ankle and spleen.

my heart aches with love and concern for my friend. she is one of the sweetest people i know in the world and has become almost a sister to me since i moved to Chicago. when i had no where else to live, she housed me. when i had no food to eat, she fed me. it is lamentable, though typical of my egoism, that only now in a moment of crisis can i appreciate her kindness for its warm beauty separated from its day-to-day manifestations.

there is also a terrible, though recognizably irrational, guilt this accident has conjured out of me as well. Theresa is a fairly responsible city bicyclist while i am… not. she wears a helmet, wears a “blinker” and rides responsibly; while i ride without any headgear, devoid of any lights at all and habitually intoxicated on a number of substances. with certain sheepish shame i am reminded of an autumn night some two months ago. i was so hammered coming home from a party that i fell off of my bike four times, biked directly into a tree and managed to fall over while walking my bike on the sidewalk in the two block ride down Kedzie to Palmer Blvd. Theresa, accompanying me for the ride, made sure that (minus some bruises and scrapes) i got home relatively safely. the cruel irony here has not escaped me.

in my worry, i am all aches and iron limbs going to bed tonight but i know it is nothing compared to the pain she must be feeling.

but for now, all i can say is that i love and miss my friend. i think you’re going back to Louisville to recuperate tomorrow. get well soon Termie.

- scermie