Being Neighborly

This morning I was getting into my car and I hear, “Um, excuse me,” coming from the kid that was across the street. “I know you don’t know me or anything, but could you give me a ride to school?” I give the kid a look over mentally noting that he doesn’t look like a hoodlum, dressed up nice, has a backpack, football helmet in hand, likely chance that he has a gun or knife on him………less than 0.0001% “See I have this football game tonight and I need to get to school.” “What…..did you wake up late?” “Well yeah…..” “Ok, get in.” He gets in the car buckles his belt and I tell him, “You know I’m not supposed to give rides to strangers.” “Oh, well my name is Russell.” I shake his hand and head out down our street. “Don’t you have a bike to ride?” “Well I do but I let my buddy borrow it. That wasn’t pretty smart of me.” I wanted to correct him and say, “you mean ‘very smart’” but resisted the urge. His school was less than ½ a mile from our houses. “See I have my gators on today and would have made it hard to walk.” I dropped him off at the street light close to the school. “Thank you very much, God bless.” I would guess he was about 14 or 15. Young kid but bigger than I am by a good couple inches. I thought it took some gumption to ask a stranger for a ride to school but I suppose I don’t look threatening. Little does he know I have a tarp, 2 bags of lye, a shovel and a hack saw in my trunk. His next position in life will go from “tight end” to “dead end”. Muaahahahahah…….too bad I hate the sight of blood.


Nature lesson for the day Pyjama Squid. Always dressed for relaxation.