As I crouched down in the backseat of the car, pure fear pounding in my head, the tucked-away part of my mind whispered, This might make a great blog once I’m safely home.
I was sitting in a car in a parking lot in a safe touristy area of San Diego around noon on a sunny day when I met the first real danger I’ve ever encountered on my travels. I’ve nervously eyed a druggie couple in a shouting match at a bus stop, picked my way along a treacherous cliff, and been suspicious of the broken deadbolt in a hotel room, but I had never actually run into a truly dangerous situation… until now.
“That guy has a gun,” was the first thing Zach said.
I looked up from the pamphlet I was reading. Since my sister Mary had been navigating, I was sitting in the backseat. She had gone to run an errand and would be right back, leaving Zach and me sitting in the car in a mostly-empty parking lot. In the nearby marina, boats bobbed peacefully. My intelligent response to Zach’s statement was, “What?”
“That guy, over there. He has a gun.” His voice was strained.
I looked over my shoulder just in time to see a young man step into the backseat of a car parked about ten yards away. There were two cars, actually, and for the first time, I noticed that people were sitting in them.
“What? Are you sure?” I asked.
“I’m sure.” The tone of his voice left no room for doubt.
My heartbeat sounded loud in my ears as I sunk further down in my seat. “Uh… let’s get out of here.”
Zach turned on the car and we drove away, trying to be casual, trying to get out of the unexpectedly scary situation. I peeked over the back of the car, watching as the two cars in turn pulled out of their parking spaces.
And they started following us.
Maybe they weren’t really. We’d just turn left, and they’d turn… no. No, they were following us.
Every Rockford Files episode I have ever seen raced through my head. This was it for us— the mob was after us now, and they would stop at nothing to kill us for what we had seen. There would be a lengthy car chase… they would shoot at us… they would… I squeezed my eyes shut.
“Are they still following us?”
I opened my eyes a bit. “Yes.”
Zach abruptly turned onto a side lane marked AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY. The cars followed us, trailing along behind us with ominous shadows thrown over the faces in the windows. We passed a sign that said NO PUBLIC ENTRY BEYOND THIS POINT. Surely a security guard would come running out to confront us! Surely we would be stopped and able to point out the crazy people following us! But no, not a guard in sight. Zach kept driving with determinedly calm terror, and I cowered in the back seat and felt like my face would explode with blood.
Whenever I’m alone on the road and I see someone, I size him up, thinking about whether or not I could take him in a fight. When the other person has a gun, there is no second-guessing.
I looked back again, and the scales tipped. The cars abruptly swung around, peeling out back from whence they came. My breath came out in a long dragging gasp.
“Do you remember what they looked like?” Zach asked.
“Uhm. They were Hispanic. A green car and a gray car.”
“I thought it was a brown car and a gray car. Did you get the license number?”
“No… No. We need to go find Mary. Can you give me your phone?”
We drove out of the Authorized Personnel Only area without ever seeing security of any kind. My hands were steady as I dialed Mary to let her know we were no longer in the parking lot, my I felt like all my innards were shaking. The shock reverberated for a long time, and I spent most of that time kicking myself for being a lousy public servant. And all the the while, part of my mind analyzed the situation and tucked it away for the blog I am writing right now.
No matter where you are, no matter what you’re doing, you might run into danger. Yes, it’s important to be smart, but ultimately, there’s no way to be safe all the time, no matter how conscientious you are. This can either make you paranoid, or set you free. Go ahead, take a risk— you take one anyway every time you step outside your door.
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