{"id":348,"date":"2017-08-24T19:58:26","date_gmt":"2017-08-24T19:58:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/noellesickels.com\/wp\/?p=348"},"modified":"2017-08-24T19:58:26","modified_gmt":"2017-08-24T19:58:26","slug":"story-of-the-month-familiarity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/noellesickels.com\/wp\/?p=348","title":{"rendered":"Story of the Month: Familiarity"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Two cars have collided at an intersection in a residential neighborhood.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Man: He was going 80 if he was going at all.<\/p>\n

Woman: Whatever, it was too fast for this street, that\u2019s for sure.<\/p>\n

Man: The skid marks will tell.\u00a0 See how the cops are measuring them?<\/p>\n

Woman: He probably started braking too late.<\/p>\n

Man: That\u2019s what made me turn and look: the sound of his brakes.<\/p>\n

Woman: Gives me chills up my spine when I hear brakes screech like that.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t turn around.\u00a0 I just stood still and waited for the sound of a crash.<\/p>\n

Man: Poor bastard in the intersection never knew what hit him.\u00a0 Look at the side of his car.\u00a0 It\u2019s like some giant folded it in half.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Mary: Thank God your kids weren\u2019t out on their bikes.<\/p>\n

Sarah: I always tell them to keep on the sidewalk.<\/p>\n

Mary: But a car going that fast, trying to stop suddenly…\u00a0 Why, it could easily have hopped the curb.\u00a0 Being on the sidewalk wouldn\u2019t help then.<\/p>\n

Sarah: Well, no, but\u2014<\/p>\n

Mary: And a bicycle helmet, why, that\u2019s no protection at all against force like that.\u00a0 A helmet\u2019s good when a kid hits a patch of gravel and falls off, but a car bearing down on them at full speed\u2014<\/p>\n

Sarah: Mary, it didn\u2019t happen that way, so let\u2019s drop it, okay?<\/p>\n

Mary: But things like that do happen.\u00a0 Every day, somewhere.\u00a0 All you have to do is listen to the news.<\/p>\n

Sarah: Which is precisely why I don\u2019t listen to the news.\u00a0 Not that kind of news, anyway.<\/p>\n

Mary: You\u2019ve got to face facts in this world, Sarah.<\/p>\n

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!<\/p>\n

Mary: I\u2019m only saying\u2014<\/p>\n

Sarah: Well, don\u2019t, okay?\u00a0 Not to me.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Wife: I always said that corner needed a stop sign.\u00a0 Didn\u2019t I always say that corner needed a stop sign?<\/p>\n

Husband: Stop signs don\u2019t mean nothing to some people.\u00a0 Fast as he was going\u2026<\/p>\n

Wife: He was going no faster than you do sometimes.<\/p>\n

Husband: I\u2019m a good driver, and you know it.<\/p>\n

Wife: My heart\u2019s in my throat every time you—<\/p>\n

Husband: Bah, you always was too nervous.\u00a0 Have I ever–?<\/p>\n

Wife: No, but that doesn\u2019t mean—<\/p>\n

Husband: The hell it doesn\u2019t.\u00a0 You just don\u2019t want to admit it.<\/p>\n

Wife: Anyway, I hope now you\u2019ll—<\/p>\n

Husband: I\u2019m always careful at that corner.\u00a0 I know that corner, and I\u2019m always careful there.<\/p>\n

Wife:\u00a0 Still, the city oughta\u2026\u00a0 For folks that don\u2019t<\/em> know that corner.\u00a0 I\u2019ve got a good mind to\u2014<\/p>\n

Husband: Go ahead.\u00a0 Go ahead and write another letter.\u00a0 But don\u2019t expect—<\/p>\n

Wife: Oh, I don\u2019t.\u00a0 But I can\u2019t let that hold me back.<\/p>\n

Husband: Some time you might wanna let something<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n

Wife: I\u2019m not you.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two cars have collided at an intersection in a residential neighborhood.\u00a0 Three pairs of witnesses react to it: a man […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"Layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["entry","author-noellesickelswp","post-348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-allposts","category-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/noellesickels.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/noellesickels.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/noellesickels.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noellesickels.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noellesickels.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=348"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/noellesickels.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":352,"href":"https:\/\/noellesickels.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348\/revisions\/352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/noellesickels.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noellesickels.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noellesickels.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}