A Cycling Sicko

I walk Ben home from school most days that I can. Actually we walk and ride. We walk with one of Ben's classmates and her mother. There is a point in the neighborhood when we part ways. We usually have not finished talking before this so we wrap it up while standing on the corner. From this point home I ride my bike and Ben rides his scooter.

Yesterday, while wrapping it up, a van pulled up and stopped. The passenger window rolled down and I said "hi" to the man in his early sixties but he didn't even acknowledge me. He spoke directly to Missy, the mother, and said, "is everything okay?" Missy and I were confused. We looked at each other. She didn't immediately respond and he said it again more insistent on getting an answer. "Is everything okay?" Missy replied, "Everything is great, why?" He replied something to the effect that she and her daughter looked like they might be in trouble.

Now, if standing on the corner talking and smiling while your children look at an ant mound looks like trouble...we're in trouble. There's a part of me that was glad this guy was willing to check on someone but what did he think I was? A pedophile or rapist whose modus operandi is to pedal up and then strike in broad daylight? And what was he going to do? I am thin compared to him and have half his years? Maybe he thought I was an infirm cycling sicko. Maybe he had a gun on the seat and was itching to squeeze one off at me.

Anyway, the whole thing pissed me off and it still does. But it also struck me as pretty funny. Not funny ha-ha. Just funny weird, I guess.