Here Comes the Nino

Here Comes the Nino

Do you ever wonder about someone who briefly touched your life? About five years ago, I was driving to work on 70 East, in Indianapolis. A SUV came barreling from the Harding St on-ramp, straight across the three lanes of traffic, two cars in front of me. I hit the brakes, swerved onto the left hand pullover, and ran to help the people of the SUV and the car who hit it.

The passengers of the car, two teenage boys, were fine, so I hurried to the SUV. Inside were a Hispanic, pregnant lady and her three year old son. She spoke no English, and I speak limited Spanish, so conversation was not easy. She had gone into labor and tried to drive herself to the hospital. When coming onto 70 she had a contraction, jerked the wheel, and the accident ensued.

I called 911, while keeping the youngster entertained, and tried to keep everyone calm (I was scared to death). I got the 911 operator on the line, explained the circumstances, and explained that 70 East was completely blocked, and rush hour traffic had made it impossible to reach us from the West. The operator asked me if the baby’s head had crowned, to which I replied in a panic “I don’t know!” While trying not to laugh she told me to check. Now asking any strange woman to let you look at her hoo-ha, would be hard, but she spoke no English, and after 25 years my Spanish was not exactly fluent.

I looked at her, nervously, and said “Um, El nino, uh cabaza?” and pointed. She emphatically shook her head and said “No.” I picked the phone back up and said “No.” At this point I could hear the laughter in the background and the operator choked out “Did you personally check?” “She said NO!” I said, as I could hear them howling in the background. “Well the ambulance is on its way.”

I went back to trying to keep everyone else calm, when the lady screamed in pain from a contraction. “Where is that DAMN AMBULANCE?!!” I yelled. Still laughing the operator said “Its almost there.” About three minutes, or hours depending on your perspective, later, the ambulance arrived and the paramedics took over. I went back to my car and left as soon as traffic cleared.

I have often wished I had gotten their number, just to check on them and see how everything turned out, but there is no way of knowing now.