| | Let me begin this by saying that I do not pick up hitchhikers ever. While I understand that some people have truly difficult circumstances, there are entirely too many crazy and/or dangerous people for me to think it is rational or safe to give a ride to a person, particularly a man, that I do not know.
However.
As I was pulling up to the office this morning, I saw a man running down the side street towards Overland. When he saw my car, he sort of put his thumb up like he was looking for a ride, and waved and went towards me. I slowed my car down as I watched him. Since he kept approaching, I stopped. Maybe he saw someone breaking to the office. I don't know. I don't have automatic windows to roll down the window to talk to him, so he opened the door and said with a thick Spanish accent, "Please (something Spanish) my baby needs help (more spanish)".
I gave him a suspicious look. He wanted a ride to his house. I didn't want a strange man in the car with me. Besides, was this some kind of ruse? It's not completely unheard of. "Where do you live?" I asked.
"On the rim," I think he said.
I looked at him suspiciously again, then nodded. "Ok, tell me where to go." I don't kow what prompted me to do this. I half believed his story, but the risks in my mind were very real. For all I knew, he was running from the cops. I don't speak any Spanish and his English was very limited. It didn't help that he glanced behind the car several times.
We didn't talk. I didn't want to know too much about what was going on in case he actually was running from the cops, and besides, he was on the phone with someone part of the time and texting part of the time. He did seem pretty frantic. I could tell that he wanted me to run a light, but I didn't risk it. When we turned on his street, he thanked me quickly, then got out of the car (didn't slam the door) and ran to his house.
I turned and drove away, wondering what had just happened. I hope I helped a man in need. I hope his baby is ok. I hope I didn't just aid and abet a felon leaving the scene of a crime. As I waited at a nearby stoplight, I heard sirens.
"Great," I thought. "Someone saw me pick him up and now the cops are after me." Still, I had a pretty reasonable defense. The baby thing was plausible. The light wasn't changing because the emergency vehicle I heard was headed through the intersection.
As I watched, a fire truck, sirens blaring, came into view. It careened around the corner, then turned down the street the man lived on.
Then and there, I said a prayer for the man's baby. I don't know any of their names, but I hope it turns out ok.
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| | Posted 11/4/2009 10:33 AM - 19 Views - 4 eProps - 2 comments
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