Yesterday I was cleaning up my front yard after work. The last few days in Omaha have been very windy and there were lots of branches on the driveway and yard. I have a large maple tree in front of my house. Then I heard a crash. A neighborhood kid fell forward off of his bicycle about 15 feet away from me. I waited and waited for him to get backup, but he just lay there. He was on his belly in the street face down. He did not look like he got hurt bad. A girl came over to him to see how he was doing. I was just frozen. Both his arms were in front of him on the cement flat from the hands to elbows with his hands close to his face. He was not bleeding, but he was scraped up. I finally went over to him and asked if he was OK.
He did not get up. I thought maybe I should call 9-1-1. I asked the girl to get his Mom and off she went. I asked him if he broke anything. No bones were broken thank God. A car was coming down the street, so I moved his black bicycle to the curb. Then I helped him move slowly to the curb. I did not want him to get hit by a car on top of skinning his elbows and knees. I looked at his legs and he was patched up with at least one bandaid. I thought maybe I should get some bandaids in the house. No I stayed with him. A man in a pickup truck drove by and stopped. He was the kid's newspaper manager. I guess the kid delivers my newspaper, but I'm not sure. Things were under control and then his Mom came. Crisis was over. I helped start to wheel his bicycle north to his home and then his sister took over for me. His Mom said she loved him and his padding helped save him from getting hurt too bad. His Mom said "Thanks" to me and the kid said "Thanks" too.
I went back to my yard cleaning. I learned something. I need to react quicker in an emergency. GO!, if people need help. Do not wait. MOVE! I was just standing there frozen trying to assess the situation.