Weekend Events and Characters

What an exciting and dramatic weekend I had. The events that I am about to share with you are all true. So Friday morning as my husband was getting ready for work he heard screeching tires from outside our driveway. He went to investigate only to see a gray mercury sable hit our garbage can head on, launching it into the air and across the driveway, spewing disgusting trash that had been sitting in there moulding and turning for some time all across our lawn. As you can imagine my husband was pissed. He got on his motorcycle to seek out this deviant jerk, but the suspect had already gotten away. When he got to work, he shared the story with his co-workers and they urged him to call the police to file a complaint, which he did. The impact of the car caused our trash can to split in a few different spots and the police gave my husband the sanitation department's number so we could get another, which would also end up costing around $50. When he first told me what happened that morning I thought, "Oh hells no!" What if one of our kids had been outside when this reckless driver decided to play hit the can with the car? Not only that but there's a Junior High bus stop right in front of our house, and what if one of those kids had been waiting for their ride and this person hadn't seen them? It's scary.

So Saturday night comes around and my husband isn't tired. At around 12:30 he hears another loud 'BOOM'. He runs to look out the window and sees the exact same car hit our trash can again (which we hadn't brought in from the end of our driveway yet.) First off, how stupid do you have to be to return to the scene of the crime? Not only that, but to commit the exact same crime? Yeah, this guy doesn't have all his marbles together, either that or he's just a cocky prick who thinks he can get away with anything. This time my husband jumped into the car and found the culprit parked in front of another house a few doors down from us, dropping off a friend. My husband pulled up in front of the car, jumped out and asked, "What the hell are you doing?" Now my husband isn't a confrontational person by nature, for the most part he likes to stay out of things. If a server brings him out a dish he doesn't like, he usually won't have it sent back because he doesn't want to make a fuss. But this was beyond reason, you can't behave like that in this world and think you can get away with it. The douchebag who was driving acted like he hadn't done a thing. My husband was on the urge of really losing it when he said, "You know what, let's just let the cops deal with this." He proceeded to pull out his phone, took a picture of the guy's license plate, and drove back home. He then proceeded to call the police, told them what had happened, and they sent over a police cruiser to take his statement. They also contacted the teen, who got into a huge fight with his parents over the ordeal. The cop was more than happy to give a citation for reckless driving. Hopefully he'll have his license revoked as well.

I am a huge believer in Karma. Sooner or later your actions catch with you, one way or another, the universe has this way of evening things out. I'm sure that our poor trash can was not the first victim for this teen driver, and for all those other nameless plastic bins I say a 'You're welcome.' But that's not the only thing that I thought about when reviewing this incident. This got me to thinking about my male MC in my manuscript, Kale, and why it is that he would never pull a stunt like the one that kid did with us. You see Kale was raised to have respect for his elders and for other people's property. His parents are pretty high up in the social world and he has to make sure to keep himself in check. Now Kale's best friend Chris might be the kind of guy to get a kick out of hitting people's trash cans with his car, or using their mailboxes for batting practice, but thankfully he has Kale to keep him in line. That's not to say that those two don't get into a few perdicaments every now and then, but for the most part Kale is the angel on Chris's shoulder, keeping him in check, while Chris is the devil on Kale's shoulder, egging him on to step outside the lines. Kale's parents aren't too fond of his best friend, and they've had many anights with Kale hiding a smirk in his elbow, while he comes up with some flimsy excuse for doing something out character, (not illegal mind you, but fun nonetheless) that his parents might not approve of. I'm just glad that he has sense of right and wrong, and that he knows better than to go around messing up people's property or disrespect others in such a juvenile way. If my kid was running around pulling s*#@t like that, I would want to know, but luckily for Kale's parents, their son likes to have fun without hurting others in the process.

Okay, this post is way too long. I apologize. I hope none of you have a run-in like ours, and that all your garbage cans stay safe and sound in your driveways.