Ah, sixth period. Free period. Last period of the day. Chance for this high schooler to be free, free, free... The girl with whom I share my schedule and I decided to go for a walk today, since I forgot the cards at home.
After a quick diversion to drop our respective bags off at a convenient locker, we went out and started a-walking. So... there I was, walking along 14th St, somewhere in the vicinity of Salmon St, with Schedulegirl, both of us becoming increasingly moist as we went because it was raining heavily, as is Oregon's wont. Much to our surprise, a white car driving along 14th was struck on the rear right-hand sector by a large red SUV, in the intersection we had just finished crossing.
The white car did a nice 540° spin on the slick asphalt, and came to a stunned stop a little further down the road, while the SUV, hardly slowed down by the accident sped off, never to be seen by us again...
The driver of the car, whom we shall dub Mrs. White, spent a few minutes in silent reflection of the situation. Schedulegirl and I watched the scene, dumbfounded. Mrs. White got out of the car, pulled out her cell phone, and started telling someone that she "wouldn't be able to make it" to something or other. Meanwhile, Schedulegirl and I went over to the scene of the crime, to look for evidence.
A few bits of car were in the empty intersection; bits of black plastic and a few chips of paint, I think. Schedulegirl picked up one particularly large piece of black plastic, and looked at it for a few moments. "Ooooh," we said, and showed it to Mrs. White. "That's mine," she said.
When we compared it to hers, though, it clearly didn't match. After she got off the phone, we showed it to her again. "Ooooh," she said, and gladly took it off our hands, even though it was grimy and a little dented.
She called the police on the non-emergency line - after some waiting, she was able to report to a police officer what had happened, and, with a grin on her face, who had done it. You see, when the guy in the SUV had hit Mrs. White had managed to knock his license plate off in the process, leaving it in the intersection for us to find.
After Mrs. White finished her call to the police, and we had made sure she would be ok, we went back to the school to spend a few amusing minutes watching some friends to drama things.
And the moral of the story? Don't be a fool and try to do a hit and run, even if you do have a sporty new SUV. It'll catch up with you.