Friday, September 16, 2005

helpless

I just had a very upsetting experience. I was walking Mabel, when I heard someone yelling for help. It was a guy, young asian guy, who lived down the block. He and his boyfriend had moved into the garden apartment about a month ago. They have two very cute dogs that Mabel likes to play with; she had just romped with them this morning. I went by to see what was wrong. The asian guy was crouched on the ground outside the apartment, naked, bleeding from a gash above his eye. His boyfriend was trying to get him to go back inside, but he kept yelling "no, no" and calling for help. I did not have my phone, but I saw a friend across the street; she had hers so she called 911. The boyfriend called for me to come over. I asked if they needed help. The boyfriend tried to say everything was fine, that the injured guy had been hurting himself. I asked the asian guy if he was ok. "No, no" he kept saying. "Did he hit you?" I asked. He nodded his head. I asked if he needed help. He said yes. I said that we would get the police, and he nodded. At that point the boyfriend, angry, went inside. Another woman from the neighborhood came over and we talked to the injured guy, trying to help him calm down. He was shaking terribly and crying and holding his dog to his chest. We looked around for someone who could go get the guy a towel or something to wear, but the police came driving up. Still the bleeding guy did not want to go inside. I searched in my pocket for my car keys; my car was parked nearby, and I have some towels and stuff in the trunk. The policeman brought the guy some shorts. He was terrified and in shock. After coaxing him inside, one of the policemen (quite cute, I must say) came out to talk to me. He said it was the third time they had been called there for similar issues, and the asian guy would not press charges. But it is a bad situation. It's funny. When I had seen the asian guy before, walking his dogs, he always seemed a bit sad. Once I saw him and his boyfriend together, and it looked like the asian guy was walking superfast, as if he was trying to get away from the boyfriend. I hope he will be ok. People stay in bad relationships sometimes out of fear. Maybe he can't go to his family. Maybe he has no money. I wish I could help. I guess I did help, in some way. And it was obvious that he had been hit; no one could easily gash themselves in that particular spot (along his eyebrow, a large gash). I feel drained. And disturbed.

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