viernes, julio 13, 2007

it's 4am, you hear screaming...

So, it's four in the morning and suddenly in the street below your window you hear a woman screaming bloody murder. You get up, scan the street below and see the woman collapse in the fetal position, holding herself together, screaming "Leave me alone! Leave me alone!" over and over. You can't see very well below because of the overhang just about the street, but you see that there are two guys, one of which is holding a big stick, or broom handle or something like that and heading towards her.

What do you do?

I'm a woman. The idea that violence was possibly being committed on another woman in the street below me was more than I could bear. I threw on my jacket and shoes, grabbed my keys and phone and shot out the door. I thought briefly about waking my male flatmate, but he's in bed with his girlfriend and a total nay-sayer besides and whatever was happening would be over by the time I convinced him to come down, so I didn't. I briefly thought about grabbing some sort of something that could be used as a weapon- but I'm a tiny girl and to be honest, my best weapon has always been my incredibly calm and commanding presence (I'm not kidding- people tend to remember me as much bigger than I am and sometimes with a lot of power emanating from me).

It DID occur to me that it was not the wisest thing I could do and note to self- when I'm in NY, it would be best if I didn't react the same way, but I reasoned that I'm in Spain. Madrid is a fairly safe city and people were already awake from her initial cries. They'd come and help if screaming continued and worst case, I have great lungs.

I got down to the street and proceeded slowly, taking in the scene before I approached. The girl was crying hysterically and leaving a small crowd of mostly young-ish people and a couple of people looking as if they'd just come down from their flats. There was an older man following her looking as if he had just been roused from bed. He had nothing but a set of keys in his hand, much like myself. He was looking concerned. I saw no stick in sight.

The girl walked quickly away from the older man and he hung back as she yelled at him to leave her alone. I followed at a distance (she was walking past my house anyway) and she sat down on a park bench in the park across from my building. She continued to sob. I approached her. She seemed to be ok with my presence.

I began to talk to her. She was ok, no one had tried to commit violence against her. She was medicated, had a mental condition and was very possessive of her boyfriend and something bad had happened. She'd flipped and couldn't calm down. He had called her father because he couldn't get her back to her house. (That was the older man with the keys who was now watching with concern from across the street).

I stroked her back for a long time while talking calmly of many things. She began to calm down. We talked about other things- where I was from, what I was doing- we joked a bit. She smoked a cigarette and I could tell that was the final calm. Just then a woman, looking very concerned and tired began to approach with the older man a ways behind her. "These are my parents come to get me," she said. She was calm enough for them to approach her now and O.K. to go back to her house. They thanked me and we said goodnight. I came home.

What would you have done?