More exciting than a movie

Mom and I saw the new Batman today. It was about an hour too long, and Christian Bale is just as dull as I remember from the first Batman he was in (which I didn't like), and the plot consists of "Saw" type decisions one after another, and the special effects aren't even any fun. The only saving grace is Heath Ledger as The Joker, who was brilliant far beyond what this movie deserved.

Anyway, we were almost home when I noticed a lot of dust hanging in the air on the edge of the road. Then I realized a car had veered off the road and was bouncing over driveways and flattening bushes and signs, and then--about the time I started saying to Mom, "What on earth is going on?"--the car rammed into a telephone pole and stopped with its hood all crumpled.

As we passed the wreck, we looked over and saw the driver, an older man. He was sitting up with his eyes fixed and his face blank and gray. We think he must have had a heart attack and was probably dead before his car wrecked. Mom stopped and I called 911, and several other people stopped too and rushed over to try and help.

We left, not wanting to gawk, and there wasn't anything we could do anyway. But by the time Mom swung me by my house to drop me off, we were over our shock and dismay. I let the dog out and gave him fresh water, and then got back in Mom's car so we could go out to McDonald's to get hot fudge sundaes, and incidentally drive past the wreck scene to see what was going on.

We saw an ambulance and fire truck and three police cars (this is a very small town--three police cars show up if someone complains about a stray dog). And when we left McDonald's we saw the ambulance drive by. Its lights and sirens were not on. It didn't need to hurry.

All the sound and fury of Batman, and one sad, not unusual event trumps it. If Heath Ledger wasn't dead himself, poor guy, his performance as The Joker would still be perceived as excellent, but not quite so perfect as it seems now. Story is all about character, but so is real life.