Caz

In the past 2 hours I guess I’ve lived through one of those parental nightmares we all hope to never have.  At just after 11pm I got a phone call from one of HB’s friends saying that she was shit faced drunk… had puked her guts up and was in a cab on the way home.  I thanked her friend for letting me know (instead of screaming at her for puttng HB in a cab on her own) and immediately rang HB’s phone.  No answer.  I rang once more and then called her friend back to find out what cab company had picked her up.  She told me and I rang them straightaway to make sure that HB was still in the cab (thinking if she got sick in the cab they would pull over and dump her out in town somewhere or God alone knows what other kind of things). It seemed like an eternity before they got through to the cab driver on the radio and… just as they did… he actually pulled up outside my house.

I will be eternally grateful to this kind man.

He helped me get HB into the house and whilst I was getting her settled (and finding some money to pay him) he waited quietly outside… checking his backseat for anything she might have left behind… you know… handbag… phone… vomit.  When I tried to pay him £20 (more than double what he had asked for) he refused to accept it… saying he was only doing his job.  She hadn’t been any bother because she had passed out on the backseat after she had told him where she lived.  After convincing him to take £10 I thanked him and he said that he guessed he had all this to come as he had a young daughter. The last thing he said to me was “Go easy on her”.

I belive in karma.  I hope that his kindness is remembered should his daughter be at the mercy of strangers in the future.  I guess I don’t have to spell out how different tonight could have been…. but a young woman… drunk…. no phone… no id… no money…. getting in a cab… alone.  I could be having a very different night tonight and it’s thanks to this nameless cab driver that I’m not.

Instead I’ve held back her hair whillst she pukes again and again… listened to her sobbing her apologies… I’ve undressed her… forced her to drink tonnes of water.  Watched her puke again.  I’ve cleaned her up… and finally… about 20 minutes ago… put her to bed with a handy bucket by her head.

I’ve stolen her laptop and am perched on my bed at just the right angle so that if I look up from the screen I can see her sprawled out in bed.

It’s going to be a long night… but tomorrow should be quite interesting.