Be Careful Out There

A late night drive could have ended horribly, but I’m thankful to God that it didn’t.

On a late night drive home, I was already in deep thought. It was anxious thinking. Since I don’t like driving late at night, I began to think about different what-would-I-do scenarios that automatically makes me feel unsafe, such as having a flat tire, being followed, or being accosted at a stop light. Even though I was not in the car alone, these thoughts still prevailed, and they seemingly increased up until a certain point.

Normally, my thoughts are not so anxious, but then I remembered how anxious feelings can sometimes be a premonition of oncoming danger. I didn’t know it at the time, but that was indeed the case. As I continued to drive, I thought my mind was playing tricks on me, but before I realized it, I saw a pair of human legs wearing a pair of jeans in the road – the side that I was driving on.

The person in the road didn’t move even though he saw my car approaching their direction. The closer I was to the person, I noted that it was a very tall man was standing in the road with body language of defiance as if to say, “I dare you to hit me.” As I came to a stop, my friend yelled out, “Who does this man think he is … superman?” My friend was not calm at all, and I wondered what was wrong with me that I felt so calm … literally too calm for a reaction. I felt like I was in a strange dream.

At first, I wondered if the man needed help, but my mind instantly said that was not the case. The man’s body language indicated that he was out for trouble. Instantaneously, I made sure the car doors were locked, and then I blew the horn as a warning for the man to get out of the way. Instead of moving out of the roadway, however, the man placed his body in a hovering motion over the front of the car. I swerved to get out of his way. Yet, he still proceeded to come towards the car.

In an instant, my friend yelled out, “I think he’s on a suicide mission and wants to be hit.” I wasn’t so sure, but the man did seem crazed, and his behavior didn’t make sense. Part of me wondered if his behavior was a part of a set up to robbery. I quickly thought about how someone else could have been nearby, and he was merely a decoy for distraction. Although no one else was around, I couldn’t help but wonder as different scenarios popped into my thought processes. There seemed to be no time to think, but I still had a lot of flashing thoughts kicked into overdrive.

Again, I laid onto the car horn incessantly – surely alerting all nearby neighbors – most likely awakening them. My blaring horn seemed to jar the man and he stood to the side of the street as I quickly sped off. I felt my heart race as I drove away, but I also reasoned that I wasn’t as frightened as I thought I should have been. I suppose I was slow to process it all because, oddly, I didn’t feel immediate danger. I was stuck. I was frozen. Even my friend took note of how lax I seemed in getting out of harm’s way.

Frankly, it was hard to process what was going on even though I recognized the danger. Since the man in the roadway was a stranger, I was certainly not going to allow him to enter the car, but in that split moment that I had to think, I didn’t want to hurt the man either. I could have hit him. I could have caused him great injury. I could have killed him. It surely would have been self-defense to save my life. As my friend had stated, “You would not have been at fault it you hit him with the car. He seemed to want you to do that anyway.”

Although I wasn’t so sure of the man’s intentions, I was concerned about other drivers. When I drove away from the scene, I passed by two other cars going in that same direction and wondered if the man would attempt to do the same with them. So when I arrived home, I called the non-emergency police line and explained the situation. The police were already on it because they’d received several calls. The way the officer talked gave me indication that something had happened – not that what had happened to me wasn’t as important, but I wondered if something had gone wrong.

Needless to say, it was a reminder for me to be careful, to be watchful, to be vigilant and ever discerning. I never know when danger is around the corner and in what form. Be careful out there!