Hit and Wait, Part 2

Here's a photo of David's family.  He was a little older than this when he had the problem with his legs.  I took his mother all over Fortaleza to all kinds of doctors and for all sorts of examinations as we looked to find the reason for his problems.

Well, last week I left you hanging and ended my story with me arriving at the hospital with the man who jumped out in front of my car.  Let's be careful here not to say that I hit the man or that the car hit the man, because in all reality the man hit me.  These little details are important.  Especially when you find yourself in front of police.  And, if you boys remember, police in Brazil often walk around with machine guns and can be very scary.

And that is exactly where I found myself as soon as we arrived at the hospital - with two gun toting police men with full body armor waving me down and asking for my documents.  The police men said we would not be allowed to leave the hospital premises until the man had been seen by a doctor.  They took my documents, asked some basic questions about who I was, and asked where my car was parked.  And yes, David's mother started crying again. 

It was close to lunch time and we had very little money between us.  I had some little snacks in Greyson's baby bag but not much.  We also did not have a cell phone to call any one.  I'm not even sure if Uncle Byron had a cell phone yet, but I think he did.  I did not and it seems neither did Claudia.  I dug around in my pocketbook and found a old phone card that you put in a slot in the public phone to make call.  You have to buy the cards.  We called the girl at my house that was with the other boys to let her know to give the boys something to eat and that we would be a while longer.  I may have tried to call Uncle Byron, but I don't really remember.

And we waited... and waited.  Public hospitals aren't known for being real fast in seeing their patients and our little man must have been at the end of a great big line.  We were really hungry.  Claudia bought some "salgados" from a little vendor and a soda pop for us to all share.  At one point one of the police offered us some water and said he would try to speed things up a little as baby Greyson was getting a little cranky.

Finally the hurt man came out.  He had some bruises on his shoulder but other than that he was fine.  The police fussed in front of all of us saying that he was never to bother me again, that I had done what any good citizen should have done in such a situation and that I owed him nothing else.  He suggested the man call his company's office and see if someone could come after him.  The police gave back my documents and said that I could leave.  I asked if there was anything else that I needed to do or know and they kindly said no and told me to come back to them at that post if I had any problems with the man.  They had a little umbrella and table where they were posted to take care of such matters right there at the hospital and told me they were there everyday.

Whew!  Finally we were on our way home.  I drove very carefully and very slowly and took the main big avenue to get back to our neighborhood!

There's one more little part to this story that I'll tell you next week.  We did hear from the man again!