Hi Olivie! I’m a regular peruser of your content on the various outlets (sidebar - Atlas Six was magnificent and I have forced my friends to buy copies also). I’m here to ask how is Mr Blake after the run in with the car? Very worried there! Hope everything’s okay!
okay so lots of people are asking (thank you) but to just tell the story in its entirety now that I understand more clearly what went down: mr blake was in the bike lane very near our house upon his return from riding in the santa monica mountains—important detail for setting purposes: the bike lanes are NEON GREEN and very much not something you can fail to notice—when a woman ran him over from behind. reminder that mr blake has been a cyclist for many years and has been hit by cars many times, both here and in chicago; it’s unfortunately very common, but this was especially bad because the driver was... you’ll see. I’m enraged already but okay let’s see where were we sequentially
I think, based on his injuries, he must have gone over his handlebars; he has burns on his skin and holes in his kit from sliding across the road and he seems to remember being on his head at some point. now, bear in mind my husband very masculinely does not like to ask for help (😑) so at this point when he got over to the sidewalk he texted me that he had been in an accident but did not go into detail about what happened, so I didn’t know if this was something he was walking away from (very common, probably 5-6 times) or something I needed to attend to (that has only happened twice). he didn’t see the make or model of the car because she ran him over from behind
anyway at some point she comes over to him on foot and offers to venmo him $300 “tomorrow, just give me your number and I’ll send it.” typically this is an offer mr blake would blindly accept because he isn’t greedy and is perhaps the opposite of greedy, but in this case the known damage was well beyond that amount—every time your helmet takes an impact you have to replace it, and the helmet alone is $300. plus she damaged his mountain bike, which, sidebar, is a bike he loves; it’s not especially valuable because it’s an older model but it’s one he wanted for years and he is really fond of this one mechanism it has on the left side (he’s left-handed, most bikes don’t have left side features), which of course she destroyed. PLUS with accidents like this he usually doesn’t know if he needs medical attention for a couple of days, when the shock wears off and the actual damage settles in. so he said he would feel more comfortable if he could have her insurance information
here’s where you need to know something about my soft summer prince: he’s from a tiny rural community in iowa where people don’t lock their doors and he doesn’t understand that people are usually shitty. in his mind people are generally good. so when she said “let me just go get my insurance card” he believed her, and then he texted me that maybe he needed help getting home
so by the time I got there to find him sitting on the sidewalk with blood all over him he was totally dazed and he just looked up at me and said “I don’t think she’s coming back”
AND READER, WHEN I TELL YOU MY HEART SHATTERED. WHEN I TELL YOU I WANTED TO RAIN HELLFIRE DOWN ON WHATEVER FUCKING BITCH DARED—D A R E D—TO HARM A SINGLE HAIR ON HIS PRECIOUS HEAD AND THEN LOOK HIM IN THE EYE AND LIE TO HIM
I've been having nonstop dreams where I find her and fight her with my fists on the spot and like, believe me, I skin my knuckles through my gloves, I have every confidence I could do some damage and the psychological pain I would cause? she cannot even dream of it
but unfortunately she was clever enough to not let him see her car and I can only hope she gets hers someday. but anyway he is stiff and sore but more importantly I can see how dejected he is by having to learn once again that people are absolute garbage when given the space to be and it makes me want to punch craters into every god damn white sedan in los angeles just on the off-chance I find hers
thanks for enjoying and recommending The Atlas Six!!!! lol. no but really I’m very happy to hear it, and I suppose I’ll have to channel my rage into something Atlas-y since I’m apparently not allowed to obsessively hunt down the people who wrong my husband