Rear Ended

Tonight I met up with my friend Jacky again. I think these Wednesday night get-togethers could become a regular thing. We headed off to the Taoyuan night market, where I proceded to sample various kind of chicken legs, some strange kind of fish soup that was actually pretty good, skark meat with wasabi--no, I kid you not, there are places in the world where people eat shark--and a drink made from strawberry and apple gelatins.

I thought food would be the most exciting part of the evening, until we left the night market to go in search of somewhere to sit and talk for a while. We were near an intersection close to the school and my apartment when we heard a sudden crash, then felt a thud. Jacky's car had been rear-ended.

I know you're all going to ask this, so the answer is, I'm fine. I am not the least bit hurt or damaged. Jacky, however, got out of the car to try to figure out what happened. Basically, some drunken lunatic rammed into the car behind us, causing that car to ram into us. I say lunatic, because the guy punched Jacky in the jaw and tried to push him down to the ground in order to kick him in the stomach. Jacky managed to get away from him by ducking into a nearby garage.

We ended up spending the remainder of the evening in the local police precinct, once the police had come and taken all the requisite photographs. Jacky's car had to be left in the station for evidence, so he had to call his brother to come pick us up. Now, I had been looking forward to meeting Jacky's brother. He had mentioned that his brother is an identical twin, and Jacky and Jason (as I learned the brother calls himself) really are the spitting image of each other. But it was strange to meet under such circumstances.

True to character, Jacky kept apologizing for what had happened and how it "ruined my evening." I told him, politely and truthfully, that I was just glad he was unhurt (beyond the minor pain of the punch he sustained) and that he had nothing to apologize for; if anyone had ruined my evening, it was the maniac who caused this whole accident and assaulted my friend.