A LOT OF WORK... & play too (Part 158n)

A LOT OF WORK… & play too (Part 158n)

Feeling good about how the time with Norman went I volunteered to show him the plans the telephone company had provided with their proposal. He couldn’t believe it when I pulled them out of my files. After a quick perusal he told me that my providing them would definitely be factored into their cost proposal. I’d pried some preliminary dollar amounts out of him just to give me some idea what to expect when the bid arrived and I was encouraged. I walked him to the back door and I don’t know why. I felt comfortable talking with him and I hoped the bid would be reasonable enough so that we’d do business with his company.

As he walked across the parking lot I heard the screech of tires and then a crash. I looked towards the street and saw that a car leaving our parking lot had been hit in the driver’s door. I’m not an immediate ‘reactor’ in situations like this. It usually takes a few seconds for my brain to process what has happened and what I should do. The first thing I thought of was to make sure the ignitions of both cars were turned off so I went to the car that had hit the car leaving the lot. I opened the door and saw a woman with her head ‘buried’ into the steering wheel. I reached for the keys and shut the motor off. There was somebody on the other side who was trying to talk with the woman. I retreated and headed for the other car finding the woman who was driving it sitting behind the wheel dazed but apparently unhurt. I got to the ignition switch and turned it off but as I did I could smell alcohol. By then other people were gathering around. I got out of the car and saw two policemen headed in the direction of the crash. I wanted to let them know the woman in the car who’d been hit might be drunk. They kind of ignored me as they assessed the situation. Then they went to the aid of the injured woman. I decided to keep an eye on the other one. I’m not sure how long it was before she slid across the front seat and got out of her car. That gave me a chance to take a good look at her. I’m not the greatest on judging age but my guess was that she was in her 30’s. She was wearing a pants suit and somewhat disheveled. She stumbled as she attempted to walk. A man came up to assist her and helped her to sit on the curb. As I watched her it seemed obvious to me that she was drunk. The man asked some of the people who’d gathered where he could take her to sit down and was pointed towards the bank. I felt that was good idea because she’d be watched until the police could talk with her.

The street was a mess. Midday, this area was always crowded with people as well as cars. The only way to get across the river was this one street and now it was blocked. After returning inside I positioned myself to observe her hoping the police would get to her before she might try to leave. I brought Bret and Jerry up to speed on what had happened and asked Bret if he recognized the woman as a customer. His answer was tinged with a wry smile. He knew who she was but not as a customer. She was sitting on one of the lobby benches and we saw her make one attempt to get up but she fell backwards hitting her head against the wall. It was almost as if that was a signal for one of the cops to come in looking for her.

We watched as the cop tried to interview her and as she, again, tried to get up. The cop told her to sit down but she made it to her feet and started to stagger towards the front door. The cop told her to stop and she did… for a few seconds before falling in a heap on the floor. By then most of the tellers and the few customers still inside the building were watching the scene unfold. The cop left her there and went outside, returning with another cop. They proceeded to lift her up and dragged her back to the bench. That was when we all heard one of the cops yell “she’s pissing herself!”

The teller counter blocked my view of her her from the waist down so I didn’t see it. The two cops were able to get some basic information from her and then they sort of lifted her up and dragged/carried her towards the front door. The police station was directly across the street so we pretty much knew where she was headed. While this was taking place I quizzed Bret on just what he knew about her. The smile on his face was now more of a smirk than anything else.

She was the wife of one of the local ‘movers and shakers’ who was embedded in the local political scene. I recognized the name from having read it in the village newspaper from time to time. Bret said he’d heard from his father (who was the manager of the local branch of a regional commercial bank) that the woman had had some run ins with the law, supposedly from driving drunk but, because of her husband’s political ‘clout’, had escaped relatively unscathed. Bret added that his father said she’d caused a ‘scene’ in his branch while obviously drunk. Not that I was any kind of expert on such matters but for someone to be as drunk as she appeared to be at noon time meant she’d been drinking since she got up… or all night.

It was almost 2pm before the remnants of the collision were cleaned up and traffic could move freely again. Our parking lot had been inaccessible which meant we had little to no lobby traffic. I couldn’t come up with any meaningful projects for the tellers so, for all intents and purposes we all pretty much had part of the afternoon off… except for me. I really didn’t want to tackle it again but I met with Jerry to go over his list of needed forms for the new branch office again. I’d added one part to his task and that was to mark up the ones that need the branch address on them. I hated to admit it but he had actually done a good job.

To be continued…