What Are You Going To Do?

"want something interesting for your blog?"
so i am thinking her book is being published next week or she got a major scoop for her magazine. my roommate (the one who currently lives in nigeria and is chasing her dreams) had come online and sent me an instant message. of course i said, "yes please."
"i got jacked at gunpoint this evening"
"WHAT???"
and now i am feeling powerless. is this a conversation to be had online? really? but our fabulous global economy has us on opposite sides of the planet and talking to each other as though we are sitting next to each other. until it really matters. we are online now and there are time lags between the questions and answers and oen is always lagging.
me: oh man kai, are you okay
me:(again) what happened?
kai: shaken up a lot but okay
me: and your car?
me: (again) what did they take
me: (again!) what happened (yes, i do ask many many questions.
kai: mine and the one of staff's bag with everything in it
kai: and we those kinds of people who carry big bags with everything in it.

you get the drift. i am asking lots of questions and trying somehow to convey my panic and strength but yahoo's emoticons aren't quite cutting it. and she is about two or three questions behind, traumatised and exhausted and yet unable to sleep.

and this is what happened. kai was driving home. she usually drives alone but, luckily for her, one of her employees had asked for a ride home. so she is in her jalopy (a little red car with no air conditioning and a reserved spot in the repair shop) and she gets to an intersection. the windows are wound down (no aircon, remember)and a man with a gun runs up to them and demands their bags. and when he did all they were doing was "jsut begging for him not to shoot while we were reaching for our bags."

i am terribly relieved that she is alive to tell the tale but made as hell and feeling totally impotent. what can i do from brooklyn? she tells me that everything was in her bag so all her credit cards, keys, wallet, the works all gone. i tell her that she is a tough nut - cos i would probably be a shaking crying mess right now. she tells me "just had a terrible stomach ache while i was at the police station from the tension prolly".

i am glad she was not alone (though i am sure the employee was wishing she hadn't asked for a ride). but this guy picks a day when kai's cousin is out of town so she had no one to pick her up and take her home and make sure she was okay. just me, feeling all silly and kinda meaningless at my desk.

but folks, it gets better! they used her cellphone to call her cousin and demand a ransom for her cheque book and other contents of the bag! the nerve of it all. i mean, you ran up to my car, stuck a gun in my face and took my stuff. you are going to take all my cash, my cellphones and you have violated my space and sensibilities. and now you demand ransom? because the money you are making off me is not enough? and you know that i am feeling relieved to be alive because you know i have either heard the stories or know someone who has lost someone during one of these armed robberies gone bad.

and what makes me feel like a man in sore need of viagara (yeah, i'll even take the 4 hour erection) - they took her cellphones (all three of them) so i can't call her. so i have to sit on my hands and wonder how she is doing, if she got any sleep and if any of this has finally hit her. i am pissed off! and i shake my fist at those bastards! yeah, that'll really show them!