Trust your gut feeling

Thursday night my sister was attacked as she got into her car. She's at home now, and I'm leaving in an hour to go and stay with her tonight.

She was in the Von's parking lot, about 8pm, and noticed a weird guy. Looked him in the eye with a "don't fuck with me" look and unloaded her groceries. He walked over and got himself in the way of the car door before she could shut it. He asked for money, she said no, and he started leaning in. She started screaming and he told her to shut up or he would cut her. She looked down and then saw the 10-inch knife he was holding. She offered up her purse and said she was pregnant, but he then said he wanted her to give him a ride.

My sister is built like me; not petite, and certainly not helpless looking. She kept her head, remembered that fighting is usually the best thing to do, and knew that no way in hell was that guy getting in the car with her.

She went for the knife, which threw the guy, but he didn't let go. She leaned back into the car and started kicking and screaming for all she was worth. She said he just kept slashing and slashing. She knew she was hurt, but didn't stop; she said she forgot to be scared, and became enraged that someone would dare hurt her unborn little girl. People in the parking lot came and chased the man away. A man ran to his truck, got a baseball bat, and caught the guy. She was told later that his injuries were worse than hers.

She was cut on her left arm. Seven inches long and to the bone. He cut through a muscle, but she won't have to have surgery. She's right-handed, so at least she can still do things right now.

You know how you get those emails? About being careful in parking lots? And they're always dramatic and overblown?

This really happened. To my sister. She's smart, she's tough, and she did everything right. She wasn't in a dark alley, or walking home late at night, or in a deserted part of town. She was grocery shopping like everyone else at Von's that night. She doesn't live in a big city, and it turns out the guy that attacked her lived down the street from the store. It can happen anywhere.

You know, she told me she knew that the guy was bad news. She could tell. But she said she didn't even think of going back in to the store to ask someone to walk her out to her car. And she said if she had thought of it, she probably wouldn't have done it anyway, because it would have been embarrassing.

She's going to be fine, and her baby is fine. Her car looks like someone got executed in it, and she has to deal with some real shit now to get through it, but like I said, she's tough. She's had the shittiest year of anyone I know; no one deserves that much difficulty in 12 months. We don't always get along, or see eye-to-eye, my sister and I, but I don't love anyone more than her, and if I could take some of this grief off of her, I would.

Instead, I'll go down there, watch some silly movies with her, and try to keep her spirits up.

Please take care of yourselves.