What started off as a typical day soon turned into a terrible evening. That evening I received a phone call from Mami, and she told me that my brother was in the hospital. There is nothing worse than getting a phone call from family telling you that your brother is in the ICU. Mami asked if I could go with her to the hospital and of course, I said yes.
When we got to the hospital, my brother was awake, talking, and even cracking some jokes. Luckily, he is going to be ok, and I'm happy to say that he's already out of the hospital. I won't go into details about what happened, but he's ok, and that's all that matters.
After leaving the hospital, I went to take Mami to her house. While I'm driving, Mami and I noticed several police cars. I told her that it seems like the entire police squad must be out today because all day there was an unusual amount of police officers on the roads.
A couple of seconds later (after we saw an officer pull over a car), I saw flashing blue lights behind me. It was 10 at night and extremely dark. Mind you this was the first time that I have ever been pulled over.
Mami told me to grab my license and insurance, but I refused to do so because it was really dark and I was not about to give the officer any reason to believe that I was reaching for something. The officer came to the car and was flashing his flashlight in my car...and woke Raphael up (insert internal scream).
The officer informed me that one of my lights was out and then went back to his car. Mami told me that I should go check the car to make sure that the tail light was really out. Mami had been pulled over before for the same thing, and her tail light was not out. Once again, I told her I would not be getting out of the car for a couple of reasons.
1. It's dark as hell outside. I'm not going to give the officer a reason to think that I'm up to something. I'd never get out of a car, especially that late at night and most importantly Raphael and Mami were in the car. I would never put my loved ones at risk.
2. That seems like a quick way to get shot. I told Mami that I would just wait until the officer came back to the car. Then let him know that I wanted to check the light.
When the officer came back to the car, I informed him that I wanted to check the light. The light was indeed out. He said that he was going to give me a warning. He was also kind enough to explain some things about the tail light because I told him that I don't really know much about changing lights. Honestly, I don't really know much about cars.
I'm really grateful that everything turned out ok and for the information that he gave me about the lights. It made me so sad to think that I was actually afraid when I got pulled over. I wasn't worried about getting a ticket...I was concerned about my mom's, son's, and my safety. I knew I didn't do anything wrong. I wasn't speeding or anything like that. Honestly, I think I was more nervous because it was very dark.
In all, I'm grateful that my brother was discharged from the hospital a few days later. I'm thankful that we all made it home safe that night. I'm grateful that the officer was kind and professional...I think he could sense that I was a bit nervous. He seemed to go out of his way to make the stop and interaction as comfortable as possible (if that makes sense).
John changed the light the next day. Fingers crossed that I never get pulled over again. It was such an emotional and eye-opening evening that I will always remember.
Photo by Dawid Zawila on Unsplash
