A seemingly scratched car, and a phone call

Article by Marc Aupiais

I had a bad feeling about the park, and in Johannesburg, you listen to your intuition. Its often saved my life, and the lives of others.

Yet, at the university where I attend a top law school, there was such an influx of pupils this year, that there are hardly any parks, previously, it was a breeze to get parking. It will get worse with the Fifa world cup around June. Apparently, we're meant to be happy one of the European teams is using our facilities as a home training ground. perhaps the ladies are, I am not.

I turned suddenly to get the park, and suddenly was obstructing traffic, I did not know what to do, and under pressure, I did not think, I pushed forward out of the road, and suddenly I was in a fix. Like a hex, I could not escape this net I had entered into. I reversed desperately, and tried to turn out. Suddenly my little blue Polo 1.4 trendline, wasn't moving, it was somehow wedged with the car next door. I put all my driving experience behind myself and escaped into a gap in the traffic, before parking properly. I'd be late for my criminal law lecture now, but my parents had taught me to do something if I ever did damage another's car.

I ripped off a piece of green cardboard from an old course-pack which i still had in my car. Wrote an apology: "I may have scratched your car... I'm really sorry" or something like that, and of course my cellular phone number, so that they could phone me to pay the damages. I put the green cardboard below their windscreen wiper, and rushed away.

I spent the entire afternoon at a friend's house, having driven there. And by evening when the call came. I had forgotten all about my incident that morning.

"Who is this?" the person on the other end said. I was suspiciaous, and asked what it was in connection with. "You scratched my car, what's your name?"

"Oh, yaah... I'm Marc!" I apologized and apologized for my terrible mistake. I was just getting ready to arrange for whatever procedure would be needed to pay, when the adult man's voice said something odd.

"You scratched my daughter's car, but you were honest, so I'm not going to make you pay!"

My heart was still beating, I was worried, and nervous. I had been and was. He asked what course I was in, I said "Law", he asked what year, I told him my year of study.

He was glad that I still existed, that a law abiding citizen would own up to and pay for damage to a vehicle. It was my honesty that stopped payment. I was still nervous. I was scared.

After I let down the phone, I still felt like shaking. I said I was glad that "charitable people" still existed to the scary voice. make no mistake I would have paid, and it was not guaranteed that I could escape. Make no mistake, I felt I may be beaten up when I wrote that note, with my details.

Oddly, my evil, because of my good- made someone think the world was still good and decent. I still feel guilty about scratching that car. I can drive, but nerves, parking and being near late along with drivers right behind me had somehow distracted me, and I had caused harm.