Close Shave

**Update**  Diana pointed out that I used the word "street" a lot.  At no time was Allison in the actual street.  She was always on the sidewalk.  Wearing her helmet.

Allison almost died yesterday.  Or at least almost was seriously injured.

We spend the morning at the Wild Animal Park with a friend of hers from preschool and her family.  We got home and were enjoying a quiet afternoon.  Allison wanted to ride her tricycle, so I walked with her out along the sidewalk in front of our house.  It was a quiet sunny day.  No one was around on our tired little street.  She was having a ball riding up and down the street, and I'd tag along after her.  A totally typical suburban scene.

Most of the houses on our block have normal driveways, but two houses down there is a house that is up on a hillside, and has a long, steep driveway.  As Allison was jamming down the street towards that house I heard and barely saw a flash of white as a car came barreling down the driveway BACKWARDS.  The child of the house (who's about thirty and living with his parents, for what that's worth) apparently gets a thrill out of seeing how fast he can back out of his driveway.

I saw it coming and shouted "ALLISON, STOP!!!"  She put her feet on the ground and was able to stop fast, and the guy in the car must have heard me as well, 'cause he slammed on his brakes.  But if the timing had been off by just a second or two, my shouting and his stopping too late wouldn't have made much difference.

Once the guy saw that things were clear, he drove off, giving me a wave and a "Sorry about that!" as he drove by.  I just kind of waved like "Yeah, I hear you."

My heart was pounding, but Allison didn't seem to care at all, and continued on her merry way.

Crazy.