I worry about the mother. I fear that one of these days, she really is going to get jacked, robbed, or, gulp, killed. Case in point: Last month’s stand-off ala Charles Bronson with a would-be robber at the carwash.
That brings me to the wee hours of this morning.
I had just gotten to sleep, finally feeling the woozy effects of a pain pill I’d taken an hour or so earlier. (It’s not something I do often, but my hands and legs were still very sore from the flooring demo and all the associated appliance-moving.) Suddenly, I hear my door open, and then the mother. “Can you come out here for a minute please?”
Huh? I was still semi-dazed and stumbled into the livingroom – to find a young girl seated on the loveseat. She looked to be about 17 or 18. She had on socks, but no shoes.
It was nearly 1 a.m.
“This girl is in trouble and I’m going to take her home,” the mother says to me.
“Wait. Let me go with you,” I say to the air as the front door closes in front of my still-dazed face. What the hell? Was the kid a front for a sinister plot? Was someone going to lure my mother away from the house, rob her (maybe worse), and steal Pearl? All kinds of horrible scenarios flashed through my mind. I debated going out and revving up Ladybird and trying to follow in the general direction I thought she was headed.
Twenty minutes later – that felt like hours – the mother returned. Apparently, this 14-year-old had been at a friend’s three or four miles away when another girl provoked a fight. Instead of fighting, this girl left and started walking home – in socks. She noticed a light on (and the front door was partially open) at This D*mn House and decided to ask to use the phone.
She said she was staying at her aunt’s a few miles away because her mother was working nights. My question: And how is that they didn’t know where the hell this kid was?! Lot of good that arrangement did.
I scolded the mother. “What if this kid HAD been just a lure?” I asked. “What if you’d ended up dead on the side of the road?” There sure wouldn’t be much I could tell the police.
“I couldn’t see calling the police and getting her into trouble,” says the mother. “And I sure just couldn’t leave her out there. What if one of these predators picked that poor child up and did something to her? I couldn’t live with myself.”
Folks, she is going to turn me completely gray. Completely.
A non-professional,faux home improvement blog dedicated to the insane yet diligent do-it-yourselfer,thoroughly peppered with random views and thoughts from me
4 comments:
It's scary for you, I'm sure. But if the girl's own mother isn't going to look after her, then I guess your mother was sent to do so.
Wow. I would've thought the same thing you did. Glad it turned out okay.
Why -- You're right. The mother's heart is in the right place.
Jayne -- Whew. I thought it was just me and my ultra-jaded view of society. :-)
Wow, I'm so glad that turned out well. It's so hard to know how far to go in being generous to people. Let them in your house to use the phone? Drive them home? You were right to be worried nowadays. There's a story in the news lately about a generous couple down in Pensacola. Anyway, I think I'm feeling nervous even though this situation has long passed!
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