On her return to the USA, an American tourist in Paris, France, has recounted a strange experience. It was nearly rush hour when she and her husband passed a man who appeared to be drunk, talking animatedly to an invisible companion. At a busy intersection he stood with the other pedestrians in a small crowd waiting to cross the road, still gesturing and
chatting away to himself. The light turned green, and everyone moved off, but suddenly the man slipped and fell. The crowd kept moving and he was left lying on the road in front of lanes of impatient Parisian traffic. He began to repeat: "Je suis tomb‚" - I've fallen - and he reached his hand up as if
hoping someone would help him, but still apparently oblivious to the danger from the revving cars.
No-one stopped to help; the writer's husband had gone on ahead, engrossed in his map, so she bent over the man, muttering inadequate French and trying to lift him but to no effect - he went on bleating that he'd fallen. The lights were about to change, but signalling to the drivers didn't seem to deter them. She decided on drastic action and stepped into the road, putting herself between the drunk and the oncoming cars. The traffic-lights turned green. A small group of mostly elderly men had gathered to watch, but no-one offered to help.
Suddenly a beautiful, chic French woman appeared - she wore a brown cape, had auburn hair and was aged about 40. She looked at the prostrate man and the desperate American tourist, who recounts: "I expected a signal, something to indicate she would help me. Instead, her expression was thoughtful, internal, as if she were weighing her words and actions carefully." Finally, the woman bent down and spoke to the man; he immediately stopped babbling and listened to her.
She extended a hand to him: "He reached for it like a babe in a pool, and then scooted up onto the sidewalk. Then the woman straightened up and turned her eyes on me. 'It's OK now,' she said." The American tourist gathered her wits and looked around: "I searched among the small band of watchers for the woman, but
she had disappeared."
(Source: San Francisco Chronicle, USA) 2001
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