My Little Lightning Hero

That year, my seven children were aged between three and seventeen. We had gone to the Flagstaff area for a fun weekend and were driving back to Phoenix, detouring through Sedona in order to find some good food.

Well, that was a mistake. During the holiday season, on the weekend, Sedona is chock full of tourists. Every restaurant had a waiting line of customers in front of it. We barely could move among the throng of vehicles clogging the one main street of this picturesque little town in red rock country. We finally spotted a less crowded restaurant and decided this was the one, for no other reason than it was already mid-afternoon and we were all very hungry by then.

It was impossible to park in front of it, so we circled to the back street, a narrow winding road filled right and left with parked cars. Aha! Yay, one single available spot! We managed to squeeze into it, and walked across the street, to reach an open vacant lot, across which lay the strip mall. We were jubilant. Yes! Right there, upstairs, was the restaurant we’d picked. Finally, things were going our way.

For those of you who have never been to Sedona, let me inform you that it is known as a New Age gathering spot.  As such, this restaurant offered a sort of fusion food which seemed Chinese but with overtones of soul and spiritual effects, from the tea to the ambiance and the table setup. The whole thing overpriced, of course. We were too hungry to care. We were surprised to find dumplings on the menu, something that was then not available in the Phoenix area restaurants. The good food and that relaxing atmosphere put us all into a great mood, and we left happily, strolling slowly and chatting merrily.

My youngest child, Kiram, as mentioned above, was around three years old and skipped ahead. I followed at a distance of a few yards, with the rest of the family straggling behind. We came to the border of the vacant lot. Kiram stepped onto the sidewalk and shouted, “There’s our car! I can see it!” She beamed at me and shot ahead toward the car, which was parked across the street.

Faster than I can put into words, I saw as if in slow motion a car speeding down towards her. It was driving at a speed way above whatever the limit was in this narrow street packed with parked vehicles on both sides. I saw clearly with those brain powers we have but do not realize are there, that the car and my child were on a collision course in a couple of seconds. I also realized that if I were to run forward toward Kiram, grab her, turn around, and run, that would take maybe five seconds, we both would not clear the road in time and would both be struck by the oncoming vehicle. I froze in horror, and found I could not move. I heard a scream coming out of my throad, “Kiraaaaaaam!”

Maybe I shouldn’t have screamed. Maybe Kiram could have avoided the collision by running faster. What did happen was that my scream reached her ears. She stopped, right there in the middle of the street, turned towards me, saw the oncoming car, and froze.

Time froze too.

And then, like in a superhero movie, my third son Qa’ed, who was maybe 13 years old at the time, shot out from behind me, reached his sister, enveloped her into his forward arm, and without breaking his stride, threw himself into a rolling motion back toward our side, Kiram tightly held on his chest. They both rolled onto the asphalt, clearing the screeching car which stopped one inch behind their bodies.

The horrified face of a woman looked out of the car driver window. As Qa’ed and Kiram crawled up the sidewalk, she quickly stepped on the gas and screeched away as fast as she could.

I regained the power to move and grabbed Kiram into my arms, checking her up, tears rolling down my face. She was fine, except for a bump on her head where it had struck the ground. I embraced my son, and sobbed.

The rest of the family arrived, totally unaware of what had just happened.

What did happen? Well, I found out that there was a superman hidden inside the chubby body of my happy-go-lucky son who seemed only interested in video games, comics, and legos. Heroes are all around us. We just don’t know it until they spring out into action when danger hits.