you just never know

Tonight, grumpy, having had to work another very late day, hungry from not having eaten, frustrated at yet another day of miserable rain, I decide to get fast food before going home and straight to bed.

Of course, someone would be blocking the intersection, trying to turn. I dutifully stop behind the line of cars waiting to turn. Listening half heartedly to the radio, I see, from the corner of my eye, a little boy and his sister, both about 10 or 11, running across the slippery street.
They stop on the median.

The boy yells at the girl, (his sister?)....

But suddenly she darts off into the traffic, trying to make it across, laughing at him for his cowardice.

I scream at her futilely from my car....
and watch as a pickup truck hits her, tossing her to the side.

Horrified and dismayed. I don't know what to do.

It all happened in a split second, but it seemed to go on forever.

I quickly called 911, put my car in park and got out.
The driver who had hit her had already gotten out, so had the men in the car in front of me, and the people behind. In just a few minute or so a crowd of at least 20 people had gathered around her. They picked up her limp body and brought it to the corner. I watched from a distance.
No one knew how she was.

Everyone called 911 simultaneously. I stayed there for a while, until a policeman showed up, not even able to see...not sure I even wanted to.

I was and feeling impotent and shaken up.
I felt sorry for the driver. Sure, she was driving too fast, but she really couldn't have stopped in time, and because of the blocked car, couldn't see the girl running. I can't imagine how horrible that would be.

Eventually, I walked back through the rain, got back in my car and drove slowly home. Then it hit me, and I had a good cry, from frustration and guilt and impotence and sadness. The most I can do for her is pray, I suppose.