No accident but, as I was changing lanes in Salem traffic, I was nearly taken out by a big black SUV. It was barreling down the right hand lane towards the red light I was all idling at. I’d signaled and checked my rear view mirrors before pulling into the lane -- I just didn’t see her speeding toward that stop light. Truly, I didn’t. Luckily, she was able to swerve and miss me otherwise my gossamery Bix would've been toast.
I can well imagine that, after this, she was big time rattled. I surely was. Hell, I was an adrenaline factory on Black Beauties.
I was signing ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry’ and feeling MOLTO thankful that she hadn’t hit me or anyone else. Why was I saying/signing ‘sorry’ when I’d done all the safe driving stuff I should’ve? Dunno. I think it’s my reflex to first examine my own behavior, looking for fault or error.
What happened next was odd and more than a little unsettling.
The light changed to green but Ms. Giant Black SUV didn’t move forward. A moment passed and I noticed her leaning out the window. There’d been no contact -- we hadn’t collided even lightly -- no need to exchange insurance info or call the cops. Did she want to chat? Then I noticed her pointing something large and black at me.
I couldn’t tell what it was but, of course, my first thought was ‘is that a gun?!’ Luckily there was a filling station parking lot directly to my right so I pulled in. In and behind a row of parked cars. I waited a beat and then took the exit that let out on the street running perpendicular. All the while, I was glancing into my rear view mirror to see if she was following me.
No. Massive sigh of relief. I then figured that, what she was probably pointing at me was her cell phone camera.
Great. Why? What was/is she planning on doing with the image, if she got it, of my license plate? Since we didn’t have an accident what could/would she do? Get an ambulance chasing, shyster to sue me for, dunno, causing emotional trauma? Will she claim damage sustained in some other accident was caused by me? Given Bix's featherweightness and blemish free beauty, that’d be a tough sell. Will she hunt me down here at home and vent more of her rage?
Yeah, all this was flying through my mind and still is.
Reality. We had a frightening near miss. She was going too damn fast on her approach to a red light and I just didn’t see her despite checking my rear view mirrors. We were lucky. Me more than her -- given the weight difference and her speed, I would’ve been totaled.
What was the cell phone camera action about? Habit? A lemme-get-a-pic-just-in-case step? An aggressive, adrenaline charged bit of retribution -- scare-the-little-bitch-because-she-scared-me?
What? Anyone have any ideas? I really don’t understand.
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