When a Stranger Calls

This past Monday evening we had a very interesting experience at the old Blue Lagoon. Hazel and I had just come home from work and settling in with the kids when there was a knock on the door. I answered the door and there stood a pretty large man with a long shiny pony tail and some rather large silver balls in his ears. He asked if he could use the phone to call our on again off again neighbor across the street. Her story is a tragic tale that is a complete story in itself.
I brought him the phone and he dialed a number only to get a answering machine. He kept calling her baby throughout his message and the thoughts running through my mind were who the heck are you and what are you doing in Shelbyville looking for my neighbor. I asked him how he knew my neighbor and he said they met online. I told him he might want to walk inside my neighbors house if its open just to make sure she wasn't there. I knew she had a history of drinking until she passed out and I thought maybe she just was not answering. Anyway this at least got him off my porch and I could continue to perfect my spaghetti dinner I was working on.
After I had just stuffed the last Italian turkey sausage meatball in my mouth there was another knock on my door. Hazel said "he's back" (kind of like right out of a horror movie) and I answered the door. He said that my neighbor never showed up and wondered if I could give him a ride partially back to Grand Rapids. I looked at Hazel and I could see in her eyes that we both knew what was the right thing to do, but neither one of us wanted me to get in a car with this guy and go somewhere. I looked at Hazel and by this time Iris and Lily had come into the room and greeted him and I just said: "OK I will give you a ride". I asked him his name and where he was staying and before I walked out the door I told Hazel which way I would take to Grand Rapids and if she didn't hear from me in an hour to call the police. This sounds kind of harsh but that's just the gut feeling I got from this guy. We got in the car and for some reason I just said to him: "you know you are really freaking my wife out right now". Actually I was the one who was feeling a little nervous. I am not sure what was going on through Hazels head. As we headed to town we passed the local McDonald's and I asked him if he was hungry or wanted a coffee and he said he was fine. I found out he took a bus here from Flint to meet my neighbor and he gave his last $10 to a guy for a ride as he hitch hiked out to Shelbyville from Grand Rapids. I was still a little nervous and kept thinking to myself that what if this is the last time I see my daughters and my wife. I could picture him robbing me and leaving me for dead along the highway. The joke would have been on him because I had $2.00 in quarters and a Ppay pal card with probably $15 on it. He was staying at a cheap hotel on South Division and 36'th street and for small talk I asked how much the room was. He said it was $38. I said I guess you should have used price line dot com in my terrible William Shatner voice. He should have killed me just for my smart ass remark. Well to make a interesting story (or not) to a close we reached the hotel and I dropped him off. I immediately called Hazel to tell her all was well. Then I proceeded to drive home feeling pretty good about myself for doing a good deed finally. (see my last blog). I guess it was one of those thank God moments and just a reminder of cleaning the spaghetti my kids throw on the floor isn't really that bad.