Two cars have collided at an intersection in a residential neighborhood. Three pairs of witnesses react to it: a man and a woman who are strangers to each other; Sarah and Mary, neighbors on the block; and a husband and wife who watched from their window.
Man: He was going 80 if he was going at all.
Woman: Whatever, it was too fast for this street, that’s for sure.
Man: The skid marks will tell. See how the cops are measuring them?
Woman: He probably started braking too late.
Man: That’s what made me turn and look: the sound of his brakes.
Woman: Gives me chills up my spine when I hear brakes screech like that. I couldn’t turn around. I just stood still and waited for the sound of a crash.
Man: Poor bastard in the intersection never knew what hit him. Look at the side of his car. It’s like some giant folded it in half.
***
Mary: Thank God your kids weren’t out on their bikes.
Sarah: I always tell them to keep on the sidewalk.
Mary: But a car going that fast, trying to stop suddenly… Why, it could easily have hopped the curb. Being on the sidewalk wouldn’t help then.
Sarah: Well, no, but—
Mary: And a bicycle helmet, why, that’s no protection at all against force like that. A helmet’s good when a kid hits a patch of gravel and falls off, but a car bearing down on them at full speed—
Sarah: Mary, it didn’t happen that way, so let’s drop it, okay?
Mary: But things like that do happen. Every day, somewhere. All you have to do is listen to the news.
Sarah: Which is precisely why I don’t listen to the news. Not that kind of news, anyway.
Mary: You’ve got to face facts in this world, Sarah.
Sarah: The facts here, Mary, are that there was a bad accident between two cars on our street, not that a car jumped the curb and hit my kids on their bikes!
Mary: I’m only saying—
Sarah: Well, don’t, okay? Not to me.
***
Wife: I always said that corner needed a stop sign. Didn’t I always say that corner needed a stop sign?
Husband: Stop signs don’t mean nothing to some people. Fast as he was going…
Wife: He was going no faster than you do sometimes.
Husband: I’m a good driver, and you know it.
Wife: My heart’s in my throat every time you—
Husband: Bah, you always was too nervous. Have I ever–?
Wife: No, but that doesn’t mean—
Husband: The hell it doesn’t. You just don’t want to admit it.
Wife: Anyway, I hope now you’ll—
Husband: I’m always careful at that corner. I know that corner, and I’m always careful there.
Wife: Still, the city oughta… For folks that don’t know that corner. I’ve got a good mind to—
Husband: Go ahead. Go ahead and write another letter. But don’t expect—
Wife: Oh, I don’t. But I can’t let that hold me back.
Husband: Some time you might wanna let something…
Wife: I’m not you.