Relieve Before You Leave

On a trip home from Atlanta with friends (a.k.a. other band nerds), my oldest -- who wishes to be referred to as a senior these days (while I could think of a lot of other things I'd like to call him at times) -- and his friends stopped at a gas station/convenience store because one friend needed to relieve himself (I would have said he had to pee, but my mom reads this thing, you know). The store is one of those that has a door but it is locked and you must conduct business with the worker through a glass and the slide drawer.

Normally that tells me that nothing good really ever happens around those parts, but I wasn't there and these were high school and college age kids who don't really think about those things. Except that this was the third place they tried to stop at and the first at which they felt safe enough to get out of the car (wonder what the other two were like...).

So, the worker (who was of Middle Eastern descent) sees the caravan of kids approaching the door ('cause they didn't know it was locked) and figured they wouldn't cause much trouble and unlocked the door and motioned for them to come in. Then he locks the door back behind them as quickly as he can.

The reason he locks the door back so fast is because coming around the corner (a very dark corner that leads to an even darker back side of the store) is a young man who apparently appears unsavory to the worker, with his wife-beater t-shirt on and those awful pants-on-the-ground style shorts.

"Yo, man, why you won't open the do' fo' me, cuz?" (This guy was not of Middle Eastern descent.)

"I am sorry. You must go now. I cannot open the door for you. Shoo."

"Wazzup wit' dat, man? You scared, cuz? I got sumpn' fo' you."

At which point the kids realize what a sheltered life they lead, realize there are two carloads of non-Indian descent males emerging from the shadows of a dark parking lot next door and descending on the store, and think to themselves...hmmmm, perhaps we should get our stuff and go.

That is precisely what they did -- relieved themselves, paid, unlocked the door, walked through the crew of homeys, got in their vehicles and left the premises, unscathed but perhaps a little more street wise and with a better understanding of why all mothers make you relieve yourself before you leave home -- or wherever.