Seeing is Believing

As I left the rec center after working out on Monday morning, I pulled out my cell phone to call Anthony. While I sat in the parking lot talking to him, I noticed something odd in the parked car next to me. There was a small infant sleeping, still strapped in her car seat, partially covered with a jacket. No one was around. It was kind of chilling.

"There is a baby left alone in the car next to me," I told Anthony. "Someone has left it there." She wasn't in distress; she was sleeping quietly. I could see her little curled up hand poking out from under the jacket, and she was breathing calmly. She was tiny, small enough to need one of those head bumpers inside her Graco carseat.

I talked to Anthony a while longer, hoping someone would show up. I have been tempted to just run in to a place while doing errands when my baby was sleeping peacefully in the car, but I would never leave them in the car while I did an entire work-out. It was a cool February day, but this was just wrong. Babysitting is available at the rec center for cheap. There was another empty toddler car seat in the car; this person might even have the older child inside. What if this baby woke up and no one was there to comfort her?

By this time at least 6 minutes had passed. I hung up with Anthony and dialed the police. They took the car's license plate number from me, and dispatched an officer. When the officer pulled in, as instructed I flagged him down. "Do you need me to stay?" I asked, after giving my information. "No, you'd better leave so you don't get involved," he said.

Right-oh. I hopped in my car and prepared to back out when the officer tapped my window.

"It's a doll," he mouthed.

No way! I hopped out, and once I leaned into the window and shielded my eyes, I could see that indeed, the domed little head had not a hair on it and had a plastic sheen. But I had seen her breathing, that's how I knew she was OK! Well, it must've just been me breathing, although she was very realistic and in a real car seat with real accessories.

So, red-faced, I jumped in my car again, and drove off as fast as I could legally! I'm so glad, in retrospect, that I was wrong, but faced with the same situation, I would call again, of course after checking much more closely.

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We had a new instructor at our Spanish class, and it was MUCH BETTER. He was not as charming or enthusiastic, but he was pleasant and very methodical, and we went over the basics and practiced them over and over. We didn't even get to verb conjugation! Some of my classmates had obviously bonded with Christina and were sad that she was gone, but I think everyone got a lot more out of it. Plus, there were handouts to follow! Anthony was much more confident after this class, and we have been practicing a little between us.