It was afternoon on a regular sort of day. Nothing out of the ordinary was going on. I was suddenly overcome with a great urgency, a sort of restlessness. I just had to go someplace, I didn't know what, or why. I got in my car and started driving.
I have two daughters, who were old enough to walk to and from a friends house alone, but still young enough that I would still want to check up on them. It was just about the time that they were due to be coming home. I couldn't shake this urgent agitation, this need to do something. I thought that maybe it was about my kids. When I was only a few blocks from my home, I saw my girls on the sidewalk on their way back home. I knew then that they were fine and the feeling I was having was not about them. I waved to them from the car and yelled to them to go on home and I would be back shortly. I still had that horrible agitation feeling, though. I kept driving.
I reached the point where my street ended at a larger street that crossed it. You could only turn left or right. I planned to turn left, inexplicably though, I found myself turning right. Same thing happened a few minutes later when the road I was on curved to the left with a smaller street branching out to the right. I went right, which meant that I was practically headed back home having made somewhat of a half of a 'circle' around my neighborhood. Still this urgent, nagging, agitated feeling, I had no clue what, or who or why.
I was sandwiched between two larger SUV type vehicles that had tinted windows, one in front of me and one behind me. The sort of dark tinted windows where you can't see any of the road ahead of that vehicle through their windows. I noticed the SUV in front of me slow to almost a stop, then it veered to the left, crossing the center line and then moved back where it belonged as if it were being steered around some obstacle in the road. I slowed to a stop to see the possible obstacle and saw nothing, then I looked down, lower to the ground and was shocked to see a toddler, a little blonde haired girl, standing in the middle of the street, all alone. First, I was shocked that the guy in front of me simply drove around the child. I immediately jumped out of my car, blocking traffic behind me on purpose, and ran to pick up this little girl, barely old enough to walk. I was holding her and looking around for some adult that I figured would be along shortly. Then from one of the houses right there, mom came running out. She was grateful of course, and I, having raised some very active tots, was not judgmental because that does happen, occasionally one sneaks out the door and goes exploring.
I got back in the car and headed home, I no longer had that agitated feeling. I have often thought over the years since then, that If I almost didn't notice the child in the road-because the guy in front of me had those super dark windows so I could see nothing of what was in front of him- and I almost didn't notice this little girl at first because I wasn't at first looking that low to the ground, what may have happened had I not been there? Would the driver of the car behind me have seen her? I almost didn't, and I was in a low to the ground car, whereas the car behind me was a higher up SUV. Would the driver have looked down, as I did? Did I actually maybe save this child? I am so awed by this experience. It happened to me and I can hardly believe it. More strange that it wasn't people that I knew, even though they lived a short way from my own house, basically strangers. If my feelings are correct and I was there at the right time to prevent a tragedy, I am so grateful, so awed.
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