This morning Nelly and I took a trip to our local craft shop, while stuck in traffic I looked across at the nearby car park where I saw a young boy 5-6 years old learning to ride a 2 wheeler bike. The boy wobbled and wobbled and I feared he would come crashing down, he managed to gain control and stop just as a man I assumed was his dad came running up to him. I expected the man to put his arm round the shaken boy and comfort and encourage him after a wobbly fright, but he didn't. The man roughly took the bike and set it hard on the ground, he was shouting at the boy, grabbed him by the arm and took him back toward the bike. Shouting at the boy the whole time, angry adult movements, out of place in the presence of a small child, the man picked the little boy up, I feared he would throw him, I blasted out on my car horn to intervene as I was too far away and boxed in traffic. I manoeuvred out through the traffic, I purposely over revved the car as I entered the car park to make the man take notice of me and not the boy. My anger was boiling inside me, my hands shaking on the wheel, my whole attention focussed on the man who had now set the boy down. I brought the car to a stop about 6 feet away from the pair, wound down the window and turned off the radio. I told him what I had seen, my voice cracked with anger, I tried to calm myself but I couldn't. I told him, "Can you hear how angry I am, I am so angry, I dare not even get out of my car for fear of what I will do." He looked like a rabbit in the headlights, told me his son was fine, that he was trying to 'motivate' him. I can't really remember what else I said, I was careful not to swear or shout, I didn't want to scare the boy. My intention was to scare or frighten the man in the way he had scared and frightened the boy. The man was quick to apologise. I turned the car away and made sure he noticed me taking photos of the 3 cars in the car park, one of which must have been his.
I looked at Nelly and I apologised, I asked if she was OK and she said, she was glad we had intervened, she said she would have asked me to do something if I hadn't taken the initiative. We were both shaking. We went to the craft shop, surprised and nervously laughing at my 'bravery' - remember I don't DO confrontation.
At the craft shop, I went to open my car door to get out, the blimmin door wouldn't open! Nelly and I collapsed at the thought of me 5 minutes earlier, in my red mist rage, trying to get out of the car to berate the father and being locked in by my own car! I'm SO glad I stayed in the vehicle!
