Weird

This evening I was down the block a ways, helping Em get her scooter back to the house, when my neighbor came out to talk to me. She told me that her ten-year-old boy was riding on our street when a "very tall, weird-looking lady" got out of her truck--which was parked on the other side of the street, near the playground--and called out to him. "Is that an electric scooter? Can I ride on it?" She then began to walk toward him. He didn't say anything to her, but just zoomed home, sufficiently troubled to run right in and tell his mother.

As Sammi was telling me this, I realized I had witnessed it. It had vaguely disturbed me, primarily because of the stranger's reaction to me. I was outside, letting Hebs play with the trikes, and talking on the phone with my mother. Em was three doors down, playing with her friend. The woman (although, to be honest, it looked more like a man to me, half a block away) caught my eye for some reason. As she began to walk across the street, talking to my friend's son, I took a step forward to see a little clearer. Something seemed...off. When I stepped forward, her head turned toward me and she stopped short, in the middle of the road. The boy kept riding to his house, and the woman turned around and went back to her truck.

I dismissed the incident, because I assumed the boy knew the stranger. But it was just weird, and so I kept an eye on the truck. The stranger kept looking over her shoulder toward me. Eventually, she got into her truck, and drove away.

I told Sammi what I had seen, and she was concerned enough to call the police. They sent a patrol car around our block, and told us to keep an eye out. If we see the truck or the stranger again, we should give them a call, and try to get a license plate number.

I'm halfway worried about it, and halfway not concerned at all. Stranger-danger, while real, is pretty rare and uncommon. We talked to the kids about it, and reminded them that they don't ever talk to people they don't know, and to never go anywhere with someone--anyone--without asking us first.

For my Spanish Fork/Springville friends, it was a lightweight, white truck, and the stranger was a tall woman with short dark hair. In case it is important. Which it probably is not.

But...just in case, I think the kids will play inside tomorrow, or I will be outside with them.