The Long Walk Away

I was afraid I'd hurt her
So for a second
For a split second
I stopped pulling
I just stopped

And then she started screaming at me
Like, what was I doing?
Don't just stop
So I pulled--really hard
And I thought, I'm going to hurt her
I'm really going to hurt her

But then--she came out
I mean, she was pulled free, like
From the car

And it made me think of birth, you know?
It made me think of being born
Because, you know, here was life

Oh God, I sound ridiculous

I waited with her
Until the ambulance came
She had passed out at that point
But, I think, it was just from--
The excitement--?
I guess--?

The EMT's wanted me to hang around
But I was worried reporters would start showing up
Or just, people asking questions
And I didn't want to answer any questions
So I got in my car
And I took off

Probably committed some sort of crime by doing that, who knows
But--I just wasn't interested in talking to people
Explaining myself--what I did
What I was doing there
On a road nobody goes down
In the middle of the afternoon

I was like--Just chalk it up to luck
And I let them put her in the ambulance
And I handed them her cell phone
That had her husband's name on it
One of those old phones
That don't have a lock on it or anything

And I took off

Total stranger saves total stranger
A stranger who just, you know, happens to be
A very attractive woman
Who, it will later be revealed, is the wife
Of a very prominent politician in town
With a very bad temper
And--and, like--was, I don't know
I don't know where she was headed
Who knows?
Garden club or something?
I don't know
She's a politician's wife
She could have been going anywhere
God knows she probably doesn't work

But she is beautiful
A beautiful woman
And she should have been driving slower
Down that stretch of road
Because it was raining
And people hardly ever go down that stretch of road
Except, like, kids who want to make out
And teenagers doing drug deals
And people having affairs

So it was lucky
It was really lucky that I happened down that way
But I don't really want to talk about
Why I happened down that way
Except to say that I'm not a kid
And I don't do drugs, so...

But I feel bad about having to walk away
Because I would have liked to have gone in the ambulance with her
That woman
But...I'm not her husband or anything
So they probably wouldn't have let me anyway, you know?

I think those are just the rules

So I walked away

I mean, you know
What else could I do?