Hey, Would you Mind Pulling My...

Tonight after school I stopped by the library because I had some books that I put a hold on to pick up. Hoping they were still there (I think I waited too long). I pulled into the parking lot, locked the door to my truck and headed for the front door.

About half way there, this sweaty man holding a long rope stopped me.

"Can you help this man by pulling his car faster than 15 miles an hour so he can bump start it?" He motions to two guys standing next to a car in the parking lot.

"Um, I don't think I know how to do that."

"We'll just tie this rope to your bumper, tie the other end to his bumper and then you can tow him"

"Um, I don't think that I want you tying anything to my bumper."

"Well, not your BUMPER but your hitch back there."

Creeped out, I glance again at the two guys standing next to the offending car. I start to try memorizing the make and model of the car, what these three guys look like, and what clothes they have on.

"Um, does this guy have a manual transmission?"

"No, you don't need one of those to bump start a car." (OK, I may be a girl, but, I've bump started a few cars in my day and I KNOW you can't bump start an automatic.) "We've just been trying it with it in neutral and then jamming it into drive. We just can't get it going fast enough."

I have visions of me pulling them through the parking lot and when they "jam" their car into drive, seeing the tires skid as my huge diesel drags it along for the ride, inevitably ripping off my bumper or theirs, or both.

"Come on. It'll only take five minutes."

I try the: "Man, this is my husband's truck."

"Nothing's gonna happen to it."

"Um, I don't thing this is a good idea. Sorry."

And I walked away. I did. I walked away.

Dooce just posted on her website a rhetorical question about whether you would give money to someone (homeless) even if you knew they were going to spend it on crack. And I felt kind of bad for not helping these guys. BUT...

This is going to sound like justification, but, these guys didn't care about my truck nor did they look like they had the resources to repair any damage that might be caused by helping them. What I think I did in this instance, is save damage happening to my truck. Damage that would cost more than a small $20 you might give to someone standing on the freeway on/off ramp during rush hour. Also, my safety was an issue because who knows what crazies are out there. Tina says you know when something isn't right. My gut was shouting at the top of it's lungs, "RUN AWAY, RUN AWAY!"



So I did.

I ran into the library and stayed there until I saw that they left.