We were all warned about them. Everybody in this area had heard of horror stories about 'strange' people in our neighborhoods lately. We heard not to stop and talk to strangers who lurked on corners because they had been hijacking cars, or shooting at people to get their cars to get out of town. Everyone, to some degree had been on pins and needles in our neighborhood since this all started.
Before the hurricane hit, Cappy and I had been planning on taking our vacation to western New York. Now, with our little town, who's good folks had taken in families, and the stores and gas stations running low, we decided to go ahead with our plans and kinda let 'the dust settle' around here.
I had everything all packed and ready when Cappy got off 'da boat'....but he didn't make it off 'da boat' til around 12:30 A.M. when I picked him up at the office in Houma, where the company he works for is located. It took us the usual hour-long drive home, and instead of resting, Cappy got a 'wild hair' and decided we should leave for NY right away, driving at night, when traffic was less congested. We loaded the rest of our stuff into the SUV, along with two very happy "licky-dawgs" and started off at 2:30 in the morning, pitch dark.
We had hardly pulled out of the driveway when Cappy pulled out his harmonica and the four of us were singing/howling/laughing along our usual winding road along the Mississippi River. I started to make the turn, when Cappy said, "Wait...I think I remember hearing that we can't travel north on I-55". I told him I had been listening to the news and hadn't heard that we couldn't. He then suggested an alternate route that would take us a millionty-two miles out of the way, and said, "Just humor me...back up and let's go the other way". I didn't want to do it, but I backed up across the intersection and sat there waiting for the light to change. I said,"I wish there were some way we could ask someone". And just then, as if in answer to my request, a police car pulled up from another direction and was waiting for the light to change as well. I excitedly said, "There ya go! Ask them!" Cappy hesitated, and asked, "Are you sure that's a police car?" I said, "Yes, see the writing on the side of his black and white car?" He hesitated again, and asked, as he was trying to get out of his seatbelt, "But are you POSITIVE it's a police car?" I was afraid the light would change and they'd leave before we got a chance to ask them anything. "Yes...yes, I'm positive!" Cappy got out of the SUV, stood in front of it waving his arms wildly and yelled, "Officer!!! Officer!!" The light changed for the 'officer', but the car didn't move. Cappy jumped around in his dark blue shirt and jeans, waving his arms frantically trying to get the officer's attention and yelling even louder, "Officer!! OFFICER!!!" The car just sat there. Nobody moved, except for Cappy, who was getting hoarse and tired from all the excercise. Finally, the car started moving very slowly. It had to come around the corner past us. It was, in reality a taxi-cab, most likely from New Orleans, FULL of passengers, who were all wide-eyed, all leaning toward the windows, gawking in the direction of Cappy. Even from where I was sitting, I could see that their driver looked kinda scared. As they quickly got up speed and zoomed off into the night, Cappy crawled back into his seat, muttering, "Well, that was humiliating".
Well, we'd all been warned about weirdos. We've seen the weirdos, and they wuz us!
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