Monday, June 1, 2009

Tricky Situation

Something I saw tonight gave me flashbacks to my miserable childhood.

I was eating at a fast food place on a busy street. A white car pulls in. A man and boy get out. The boy looks to be about 13 so I'm guessing father and son. I can't hear them but I can tell the man is yelling at the boy. He makes him go in to get food. The boy looks anxious.

It takes a long time for him to get waited on because the drive-thru is busy. At that point I went to the counter thinking to make sure he got waited on so the man in the car didn't get any madder. But the boy was holding a receipt so I figured he's doing okay.

I finished eating and went out to my truck. There was a single spot between me and the next vehicle. The white car was parked a few spaces down opposite from me.
Now I can see there is a woman (the mom?) and another boy in the car. Family of four out for dinner? The boy comes out with the food. Instead of waiting for him the man jumps out. Now he's all smiles and opens his arms wide and yells out, "What a good boy come give daddy a big hug." I find this mood swing very disturbing. The boy doesn't want to do it, but he's afraid not to. He inches towards the man. The man throws his arms around the boy, who looks miserable, and covers the side of the boy's face with kisses. I sit there to see what happens next. The boy gets in and the man is now laughing a maniacle laugh. He gets in and revs the engine. Instead of backing up like a normal person to pull out, he comes flying right at my truck, swerves suddenly and dives through the small space between me and the next vehicle. I thought for sure he was going to hit me. At this point I think the guy is off his rocker or flippin' drunk. By the time I get turned around I can't see the car so I don't know which way it went on the busy street.

Minutes later I was so mad I had left my cellphone at home. I was also mad that I hadn't thought to jot down his license plate. At least in CA you can call 911 and report drunk drivers. I hesitated because I didn't have enough info for the police until the guy almost took the mirror off the side of my truck and then it was too late.

All along I could have been jotting down descriptions of the people, the car, the license number and so on.

The other problem I have is I don't trust the govt. much. Say they arrest the guy. Suddenly the family had no bread winner, and the kids end up in foster care where they get abused even more. It's hard to know what to do. But I'm pretty sure I failed.