JOE
by
Jim McGregor

I believe that if you do not believe in a Higher Power before you join the fire department, you will before too many months have passed. This is a story about a young man named Joe.

Joe was pleased that his many months of graveyard shifts had ended and with summer coming he decided he would ride his bike to work and back in the daylight. The afternoon of his first complete day shift he was heading home just after 5PM, pedaling strong in the slow lane approaching an intersection.

In the lane to his left was a flat bed semi traveling the same direction and Joe was in a position under the driver’s mirror. The truck had pulled into the left lane in order to make a wide right turn at the intersection and as he did, Joe and his bike were rolled up into the right fender well and wedged between the tire and cab as the truck skidded to a stop fifty feet from impact. We call that type of incident a sudden and obvious fatality and no attempt at rescue was made, just a call to the coroner.

There is always a waiting period for the coroner to respond and even with Joe covered up, a busy intersection at rush hour attracts a large crowd. The fact that people would stand there for an hour or more to get a glimpse of a dead body never ceases to amaze and dismay me.

We had the area cordoned off and I was standing with a Captain when a lady approached and lifted the yellow tape and came underneath. The best way to describe her to you is ask you to imagine a Gypsy fortune teller from the old movies; beads, braids, a headband and colorful long flowing clothes. As she started to pass me I reached out and took her arm to stop her. She took my hand off her arm and very gently said, “It happened too fast, his spirit is very confused and I must move it on.”

She moved another twenty feet closer and went down on her knees and began a low chant with her arms raised. After about a minute, she bowed her head then rose and walked back to us. She smiled and said, “Thank-you it has moved on.”

I’m supposed to get names of people that breach security lines but I didn’t. When an RCMP officer who had been watching came over he asked if I knew where she went. She had disappeared as quickly as she had arrived.

Two weeks later a lady came to my office and identified herself as Joe’s girlfriend, they had been together for almost five years. She was frustrated by the lack of information she had received about the accident because she was not married to Joe, no one was releasing anything to her. I advised her that it was an RCMP matter and I couldn’t give out any details of the accident.

As she started to leave I asked her sit down and told her the story of the woman who had appeared that day. During the story she began crying and was wiping tears when I finished. She looked up and said, “Joe’s mother was Native, and she gave him up when he was very young. In the past few months Joe had begun to research some of his Native heritage and was becoming more and more interested each day. I think she must have come to take him back.”

She thanked me, shook my hand and left.

I never did ask her if Joe’s mother was alive or not, some things should just be left alone