Still wondering...

Driving home from the dog park with Dugi on my lap tonight, I was listening to the KNPR special about anthems-not just national anthems, but rock anthems and other songs that have become cultural anthems for one reason or another. At that point, "All You Need is Love" was playing.

I turned into our neighborhood and was almost immediately flagged down by a young teenage girl-probably fourteen or fifteen-in front of an SUV stopped with all its interior lights on and the doors open. I pulled over and rolled down my window. "What's wrong?" I asked, before she could say anything. The hairs on the back of my arms were standing on end. Something wasn't right.

"Can you help us?" she said, "My mom"-at this point her voice broke and she started crying-"hurt her arm and she can't drive the car."

"Ok, of course. Let me pull my car closer to the curb," I said. I parked, grabbed Dugi and my purse, and got out.

When I approached the SUV, I immediately saw the girl's mother, who was also crying, and what I assume was the girl's little sister in the back seat.

"Do you need me to call someone?" I asked the woman.

"She already said she doesn't want to call anyone," answered the girl's daughter quickly.

"Well, what can I do? I can drive your car back to your house. I can give you a ride," I offered.

"No, no," the woman said and shook her head. "Never mind." At this point, the girl started to argue with her mother in Spanish, telling her that as long as I was offering help, she should take it.

"No, no. We only live a few streets down," the woman insisted.

"I can call someone else-a friend or family member," I offered. I thought it was strange that they had stopped in our neighborhood since it's gated. If they didn't live in our neighborhood, they must have been coming from a house within it.

"There is no one else," said the woman.

"Ok, well let me do something," I insisted.

"No, no, we'll just go," said the woman, shifting her car into drive with her good arm and beckoning her daughter to get in the car. I began to walk away, and, out of earshot of her mother, told the girl where my house was if she changed her mind. I watched the woman struggle to make the one-armed u-turn she would need to exit our neighborhood. She drove very slowly and made a very wide turn that almost took her up onto the curb. At this point, I got back into my car and drove down the block to my place. I'm still wondering how she hurt her arm and if they got home safely.