She was standing in the middle of Callejon San Antonio around 6:30 this morning as I left the house, a dazed look on her face. And tears. On a closer look, she was crying.

“Are you all right?” I asked. A dumb thing to ask, I know. “Can I help you?”

“No, I’m not. I don’t know.”

She removed her hand from the top of her baseball cap. A large dark smear of blood was seeping through the hat and dripping down the side of her face. In her other hand, she held the leash to the dog she had been walking.

“I hit my head. Fell down. It hurts.”

She pointed to a utility box on the side of a nearby building. She needed to say no more. I have hit my head on the same box at least once and barely dodged it several more times.

It really sticks out and is an especially nasty obstacle for tall people.

She’d hit one of the sharp metal corners really hard while looking down.

We established that she lives only a few doors down and began to make our way to the door. I asked a few questions to gauge the chance of a concussion. Even as I was asking if she thought she needed to go to the hospital, a young man stepped up and asked, in both Spanish and English, if he should call 911.

He was like an angel appearing from nowhere!

While he called 911 and spoke with the dispatcher, the woman’s neighbor walked up, returning from the nearby gym. He and I stayed with her and kept her talking while our new friend guided the Cruz Roja to our street.

How quickly they arrived! Two Red Cross EMTs hopped out of the ambulance with medical gear and set to work cleaning and dressing her wound and gathering the medical details.

The look of relief on her face was palpable.

Our friend with the cell phone moved on with our gratitude. The bilingual neighbor, a Colonia San Antonio native, stood by as the EMTs went about their task.

I made one last check and thanked the EMTs profusely before heading off to finish my walk with Moppit.

If all the world’s a stage, this mini-play unfolded in a classic San Miguel way. Like magic, all the right characters hit their marks at just the right moment and played out their roles. Especially Cruz Roja, our frontline responders in an emergency. (They can use your donations here. They will have mine.)

I hope my neighbor is feeling better this afternoon.

Now, to do something about that utility box.