Disclaimer: It's been awhile since I wrote. What can I say, except that life got in the way and I didn't want to force my writing. But now that I'm studying for an accounting test, words are coming to me a lot easier than these damn numbers are. Anyway, onto the blog!
It was a Friday night. And it was a fairly nice evening which has been uncommon since about October of last year. Chris had a monstrous night at work and wasn't able to leave until after 9:30. I was at my parent's house that night for two reasons. One of those reasons is because I like to be around company if I happen to have a Friday night off of work and not in my house by myself. The second reason is that my parents have food. Just because my baby is chef doesn't mean we have food in this house (in fact, we have less food in this house than I have in other apartments, ironically...).
Anyway, he calls me and says he's getting ready to leave the club. I gather up my stuff from my parents house ready to spend at least an hour with my baby before I finally pass out from sleep deprivation.
Our house is located on a corner right in front of a bus stop. I turn the corner and there is a person waiting on the bus. It's a little late, and I live downtown, so I gather up my wallet and things pretty quickly because I don't exactly have a death wish and head to my door.
I reach the steps to the side entrance and that's when the stranger waiting on the bus speaks up and asks what time it is.
Now, I know this is going to be hard to fathom, especially for those of you who know me, but I really am not a mean person. If you're nice to me I'll be nice to you. If you're a bitch to me...well, I have red hair...so I really think it goes without saying that I can be a soulless bitch.
Maybe I do have a death wish though. Because what I should've done was acted like I hadn't heard the person and headed straight into my house. What I should've done, wasn't what I did. Because I glanced at my cell phone, and I answered the stranger, a girl, that it was 9:51 (It really and truly was 9:51. I remember it like it was ten minutes ago).
She says, "Dang, I been waitin' on this bus for fifteen minutes."
I respond by saying, "Oh my, that sucks," because it really does truly suck, but there isn't exactly anything I can do about it. And honestly, getting a bus at nearly 10 p.m. on a Friday night in our little podunk town probably isn't going to be easy to begin with. We're not exactly New York City. Hell, we ain't even Grand Rapids, Michigan (which has a good public transit system...I know because I just Googled it!).
"Well," she says, "I'm your neighbor. See that light," she says and gestured across the street. "That's my apartment building. My friend done had a baby, and I want to go over there and see it, but I been drinking, and I'm not about to get no DUI."
"Well, yeah," I respond by saying. Honestly, though, I can't name one person that honestly and truly wants to get a DUI. But I appreciate her thought process on this. However, I knew what was coming next. She saw me park in the driveway, she knows I have a car that works...And I've already looked around an ascertained that Chris's ass isn't home yet. His absence pisses me off because I fucked around a little longer than normal at parents just so he could beat me home. And, despite all of my fuckery, he hasn't made it home and I'm dealing with this drunk woman on a street corner who wants me to take her to her friends to see her new baby (Don't think that fact that she's wasted and wanting to see a newborn baby hasn't escaped me, but I don't judge other people for their decisions...unless they judge my decisions first...).
And then it happens, "Can you take me? I got like three dollars I could give you. It ain't far. It's on Sweetser Avenue," she says but it comes out more like Switser. I must've have looked confused because she went on to say, "Down by Glenwood School."
I know exactly where Glenwood School is and it's not because of my middle-class upbringing. It's because a lot of shootings and stabbings and gang-relatated activity happen near Glenwood. Our little patch of hell may not be Los Angeles, but we do have the occasional drug-related violence here (and happens THERE).
"Well," I say, "I'm waiting for my fiance. He's on his way over here." And then, like a sign from God, Christopher comes around the corner. I wave my arms and yell his name and he stops a few feet short from his parking spot on the curb.
"She needs a ride and wants to know if we can take her," I tell him.
He looks at me, and I can't even begin to describe the look on his face. It's a mix of disbelief, disgust, and a dash of curiosity. "Ok," he says. So I walk the drunken stranger over to the car. She sits in the backseat, and I get in the front seat.
"I don't know you all," she says, "But you seem like good people. I hope you're good people because I gotta admit, I'm a little scared." Chris tells me afterward that he really and truly wondered how she was scared when she was driving us to the worst of the worst parts of our city.
"I got a little money," she admits again and I tell her not to worry about it. She introduces herself to us and we introduce ourselves back. She goes onto to explain that she's our neighbor and then says "I ain't got the best place, but I've got nice stuff. You know NeNe Leakes?" she asks and I respond that I do and that I like her. "I like her too, but NeNe forgets where she came from," our new neighbor says.
"I don't forget where I come from. I worked hard to get where I am, but I don't forget. NeNe was a stripper that got lucky and she done forgot where she came from. And that's why I can't like NeNe," she says. Well, everybody's got their opinion, and if she doesn't like NeNe, she doesn't like NeNe. That's her prerogative.
"I do think y'all are good people," she says. "Thank you, Chris for taking me. I'm a little tipsy and I don't want no DUI. Those cops be liking to target people all the time, so I was taking the bus, but I waited 15 damn minutes and that bus didn't show. So thank you for taking me."
"It's no problem," Chris says. Our neighbor gives a couple of directions and then says, "You know, y'all should come over. Just knock on the door. I like to drink some beer and wine. Y'all should come over, we can drink some beer, have a few laugh, maybe even read the bible (Honest to god she mentioned the bible)."
At this point, she is now directing Chris to a house where a car is parked.
"Oh those liars," she says seeing the car. "They done said nobody could come pick me up."
"Well, maybe they just got home," Chris says.
"Hmm," our neighbor says, "They's gonna hear about this. Got me waiting for a bus and asking my neighbors for a ride." She gets out of the car and says, "Well, thank you Erin and Chris. It was real nice meeting good people like y'all. Come over for some beer," and shuts the door.
Chris just looks at me. I can't help it, I start to laugh as he pulls away from the curb.
"Really?" he asks me, the disbelief shining bright in his eyes.
I'm still laughing. "I mean, we've got a bible-study we can go to now! And we know she'll serve wine."
Chris just shook his head. Five minutes later, we were parking at the house. Thank God the bus stop was empty of any prospective riders.
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