Crunch! Crunch!!

"I'm okay" is how I started my phone conversation with my hubby yesterday when I called to tell him I was in a small car accident yesterday. It's actually a funny story, now that it's over, so I had to write about it.

So....... I'm driving home in our little Toyota Yaris rental from the park with the little five year old boy I tutor and we are stopped at a red light, three traffic lights away from his apartment. He says; "There is a fly in the car!" and I here the lock on the door unclick. My head swung around at the speed of light, I put on my "unhappy highbrows", lowered my pitch in my voice, and said; "DO NOT OPEN THAT DOOR!". He looked at me and quietly said okay. Three more times before I parallel parked the car I heard about "the fly in the car". Hussein has NEVER opened the car door when I have parked before. And I reminded him to wait on me, but I guess his mind was still on that "fly", so when I stepped out of the car he decided to open the door even though his seat belt was still on. Of course at that very moment a car zoomed by in the single lane of the parking lot and, "crunch" hit the car!!! Actually the edge of the door.

I rushed around the car to make sure he was okay, and with a very panicked face and soft voice he said; "There was a fly in the car"

The man spoke a fair amount of English (Thank you Lord!), and looked at his car, saw the couple of scratches on the front bummer and said no problem. Then I went to close the door, so he could drive by and of course the door wouldn't close. I turned around quickly to memorize the mans license plate and tell him there was a problem. Here in the U.A.E. you have to have a police report with EVERY accident. Body shops can not repair cars without a copy of the police report. And, on top of that it's a rental! Thankfully, he knew I would need a report for the repair and I could tell he wasn't going anywhere. One hour later the police still had not arrived! Hussein's mom had joined me and was waiting with me so I would have someone with me that spoke Arabic. Another forty five minutes later the police finally arrived. Basically the results were in the U.A.E. someone HAS to be at fault. And it was me, because I was responsible for "the child"! Even if there was "a fly in the car!"

The good news is the police officer was going to write me a ticket also, but Hussein's mom talked him out it! Neither one of us was sure what the ticket was for, but I said my thank you and walked away with my police report. Then today I went to the rental agency and gave them the report and the insurance will cover it with no extra fees from us. The door looks undamaged but won't close unless you push downward on it while closing. They will repair it when they do the next maintenance.

Hopefully it will be my one and only "crunch" here in the U.A.E.!