A Life Wasted

Showing My Hand

Until June all I did was burn gas and lose money. My customer finally stopped paying me until they saw some tangible results. I hadn't done any work on their program for months so I could only feel shame over this situation. Even when their money was still coming in I was spending more on travel than I was making, and that was with sleeping in my car and cutting travel cost to the bone. As foolish as all of this was, I had a burning need to keep trying to do something to save those nameless babies, even though all I'd done so far was build a database of information on abortion providers. I did manage to acquire a few guns though. Someone I know had stolen them so I bought them from him cheap. They weren't really good guns, but it was all I had. So loaded with guns I would never use all of this came to a head in June when I was broke and far from home. Between my foolish "mission" that I couldn't do anything about and my fragile state of mind I finally did something too stupid to get away with.

The details don't matter, but early in the morning I stole money from a small truck stop, was spotted as I was driving away, only I didn't realize I'd been spotted. I drove about ten miles then stopped at a McDonalds. I'd been so broke that I hadn't eaten for two days so I couldn't resist stopping so soon to get something to eat. I went through the drive through, ordered a breakfast sandwich, coffee, and water. When I got up to the window I paid and the server gave me my coffee and water, but said the sandwich would take a few minutes. There were others in line behind me so I exhaled deeply and offered to pull up and out of the way.

I have to backtrack to explain why I exhaled deeply. I have a pet peeve about fast food drive through and their insisting you pull ahead when your order isn't ready. This steams from having a large family and thus making extra-large orders at the drive through. Over the years I have noticed that once I pull ahead it seems to take an excessively long time for my order to reach me. More times than I can count I have said "No" when they ask me to pull ahead. On a few occasions they have insisted so I simply insisted they return my money if they weren't going to serve me. My friend Bud who traveled with me on business use to beg me not to use the drive through because I had embarrassed him so bad over this issue. I am sure Mary felt the same way. As I say, it's a pet peeve. Not a particularly adult position to take, but it was my thing.

So when this young girl said that my sandwich would take a few minutes I knew their policy was to ask me to pull ahead. As much as I hated doing that, I didn't want to make a scene, so I offered to do so first. When I made this offer the girl said, "No, that's okay. It'll just be a few minutes so you can wait right there."

This was so unusual for something I was so aware of that it made me suspicious. I looked in my mirror and confirmed a long line of morning customers. I looked through the window into the store and it was packed and busy. When I looked at the serving girl she was looking down and I thought I saw her head shake very slightly, like she was telling someone at her feet no.

With my senses shouting DANGER! I tossed my coffee to the floor and hit the gas. I had just started moving when two marked police cars came around the back of the McDonalds from behind me and four more from my blind spot on the opposite side of the McDonalds trying to get in front of me. The only way out of the parking lot was across an eight-inch-high curb, but my car was a four-wheel drive GMC Yukon with a high clearance so I drove straight for the curb. I barely made it across the curb before the two groups of police cars reached me. Had I not reacted before they came into sight they would have had me right then. As it was I cleared the curb and hit the road with the accelerator floored. The police cars were all Ford Crown Victorians lacking the ability to clear the curb so they had to go back to the entrance before they could reach the road and give chase, which gave me a much needed head start.

As I drove away my first thought was that I wished I'd gotten my sandwich first as I was still hungry. In less than a minute I could see a string of cop cars gaining speed behind me. I counted seven of them. The Yukon was a tough vehicle, but it wasn't fast, so I made several turns and began looking for a road more suited to four-wheel drive than Ford Crown Vic's. Through these turns I managed to put some distance between myself and the seven police cars, though I am not sure how. I did manage to find a country road, but as I did I picked up a police car from somewhere. This guy managed to get right on my back bumper, which is bad for me. With the exception of the chase previously mentioned in the big city after driving by the abortion clinic, every time I've out ran cops it was because I managed to prevent them from getting so close. I drove aggressively and made several hard turns but this guy must have been through the same driving school I attended because he stuck with me. I have never been caught in a police chase, but I was beginning to believe I'd met my match with this police officer.