Not as Brave as I Thought I Was

Wow. I still can't believe what I saw at lunch today during my short walk.... I'm having a really hard time not thinking about it since getting back. Part way through my walk I ran into two other guys from the department, one of the being my boss. We were waiting to cross a busy street when a girl ran across the street (in the same direction we were waiting to cross) with a guy running a couple feet behind her. We crossed the street and walked by a parking lot where two guys (one of them her pursuer) were trying to shove the girl into a truck. She was putting up quite a fight. She was probably around 16 and the two guys between 30 and 50. I think I remember the older guy say something about being her father, but what kind of a dad would do that?

I always thought I'd be the kind of person to react when seeing something like that but I didn't. I just ended up standing and watching with my co-workers. By then a crowd had started to form including two mall security guards (rent-a-cops basically) and a woman on a cell phone. When we saw things were being looked after we left, but those two guys were still struggling to get her into the truck.

Why didn't I do anything? Why did I just stand there watching and waiting for someone else to do something? Grr.... I'm going to be playing that back in my head all afternoon now. I feel like such an idiot. =(

Matthew.