So, it's been one of those days - a bad day gone worse but still ending on a happy note, all thanks to a policeman showing more compassion than I could ever have imagined.
You break the law, you're fined, end of story.
I noticed him standing there with arms raised to show all drivers to the side. Yellow vest making it hard to miss him in the rain. First thought was there had been an accident but I then realized it was just one of those controls you happen to get stuck in every five years or so.
That's when the feeling of something being really wrong hits me, and in the corner of my eye I notice I don't wear my seat belt! I
always wear my seat belt! This isn't me, this isn't happening because the day has so far been shitty enough!
But it
is me, and on top of the other small disasters of the day, the thought of being fined a $250 I do not have, makes my lower lip tremble (in a very
un fiftyshadesofgray-like manner) before I've even brought the car to a stop.
He wants me to roll the window down but they're electric and before I manage to do what he wants I first lower the left window in the back... then the right, then I hit the right button by sheer chance and he asks for my drivers license. I finally find it though it's not in my bag where it always is, and he instructs me to blow into the gadget that luckily only checks for alcohol and not the level of possible brain activity.. answer would have been the same though since there's a blinking "negative" appearing on the display!
That's when the lack of wearing the seat belt is finally addressed and I feel those bloody tears coming, no way in hell will I make this without starting to cry - and I don't!
I just say I wasn't aware of not having put it on, that I was upset because my daughter was angry with me. That she had missed her train that was to take her to our town in time for a dentist appointment, and that I, who don't own a car, had first had to fix one and then go get her. Time being short she was late getting there, and a misunderstanding on my part now led to her being late again for a meeting about a job this Autumn... and money for paying the fine of unconsciously neglecting the law.. I just don't have them.
He looks at me and says "You'll never forget it again, I know! I hope the rest of your day will be better!"
At first I don't understand that he will not write me that fine, there's no circumstances under which you usually get away with not wearing a seat belt... I just did, so I dry off my tears and smile, I say thank you and I wish him a good day too since he just made mine so much brighter, no matter the drizzle and the wet, muddy last 2 inches on my jeans! :o)
