Last night we had a minor scare with my neighbors who live upstairs. Richard and I had just gotten home from work and were trying to decide what to eat for dinner when we heard the 4 year old who lives upstairs suddenly WAILING. We instantly knew something bad at happened. Two seconds later the doorbell rang and a few hard knocks pounded on our door. Richard ran up the stairs and had a baby thrust into his arms so the frantic mother could attend to her little boy who had just split open his chin. The poor kid was riding his bike down the sidewalk in front of the house when his little brother decided to jump out in front of him. Being the good older brother that he is, he swerved to avoid him and the front tire of his bike went off the curb before he was ready for it, dumping him face first into the street. The worst part is that all of this happened while her husband was out of town! I slowly climbed the stairs to see if I could hear what was going on and heard my neighbor, Cheree, say, "I need to take William to the hospital..." I ran up the remainder of the stairs and tried to figure out what I could do to help. I took the baby from Richard so he could run downstairs to grab his shoes and the car keys. While the mother frantically searched for her purse and insurance card, I tried to calm both of her other kids while Richard held William's bloody chin shut. It wasn't a very big slice, but pretty deep and was bleeding a LOT. As we all rushed out the door, I noticed the oven was on and, trying to be a good neighbor, I turned it off, flipped off the lights, and locked the door. As soon as all the kids were loaded in the car Cheree said, "Ok I just need to grab my keys and we can go". I slowly said, "But I just locked the door..." The look on her face is one that I will never forget!!! She screamed, "YOU DID?!?!?!!!" and was trying hard not to cry. (She had good reason to be upset, I think she was a little bit in shock!) I don't think I have ever felt worse than I did at that moment. I was just trying to help!!! We were all preoccupied with trying to find a way into the locked house and failed to notice the poor kid in the front seat of the car, holding his chin dripping with blood and screaming for his mom. Poor little guy! Luckily Richard found a window that slid open easily and was able to crawl into their bedroom to unlock the door. However, just as Richard jumped through the window, Cheree looked down at her purse and realized that she had had her keys all along!!! I'm sure she'll look back and think it's funny later.... Anyway, Richard drove her car to the hospital while she held her little boy and calmed him down. We made it to the emergency room and we watched her other kids while they ushered William into a separate room until Cheree's parents arrived. William was able to get his scraped-up arm scanned and stitches in his chin. As we arrived home we noticed that there were drops of blood leading into the house, dotting the kitchen floor, and covering the chair he had sat in. We tried to clean it the best we could since we figured the last thing she needed to come home to was a mess of blood to remind her of the trauma she had just been through! Needless to say, he will be fine and it was a pretty crazy night for all of us!
