The World We Live In

It was a dark and wintery night. We were watching TV when we heard a loud crash. Johnny was cleaning his room, so we just thought he’d knocked something over until he came out and asked if we’d “heard that?”

He went outside to investigate, and then returned to report that a car had jumped the curb, plowed over two of our neighbors’ plum trees, and fled leaving part of their front bumper behind.

John and Johnny went out and talked to our neighbors while they surveyed the damage. They noted that even though most of the previous week we’d been socked in with frozen fog, that particular night the road was not icy. 

We all speculated that the driver was a teenager in his parents’ car who was distracted by his friends, or texting, or worse yet, drinking. We shook our heads and grumbled that the driver hadn’t even bothered to stop. What a world we live in.

The police were called. They asked Johnny what he’d seen out of his bedroom window. He said that the car looked like a Camry. They cleaned up the scene. I don’t know who took custody of the bumper. 

The next morning we saw our neighbor digging out the remains of his two trees. Five trees of the original seven trees still stood tall in a row between the curb and the sidewalk. 

The neighbor and his wife are retired. When the rain stops and the days grow longer, they spend most of their time outside gardening and taking pride in their yard. I wondered if they’d try to replace the trees when spring arrived or come up with a different solution.

It’s been a few months since the trees were snapped off and flattened. The sun has come out. The weather has started warming up. Daffodils and tulips are blooming. Cherry trees look snowy. Lawns need to be mowed. The “tree neighbors” were out puttering in their yard. John stopped to talk to them when he was walking the dogs.

They told him the end of the tree story. One day a man had shown up at their house to talk about the trees. He apologized. His 17-year-old son was the one who had run the trees over.  When he lost control of the car and took out the trees, he panicked and went home. His father pointed out that he’d not only ruined the trees and damaged the car, he’d also left the scene of an accident. The father asked our neighbors if his son could come over to apologize and replace the trees.

The neighbors appreciated the father and son owning up to the son’s mistake. The young man showed up last weekend. He said he was sorry. He dug the holes and planted the new trees. He made things right.

Now every time I pass by those saplings, I am reminded that this world that we live in still has fathers in it that teach their sons to be responsible, and that there are teenagers who are learning important lessons on their way to becoming mature adults. 

There were no lawyers involved, no denials or outraged drama. This was a simple everyday thing, the type of thing that doesn’t make the news or reality TV shows. I doubt that the son will post it on his Facebook page. But this is a quiet, decent example of what makes this world that we live in a better place.

Laura Keolanui Stark is appreciating some new trees nearby. She can be reached at stark.laura.k@gmail.com.