A Painfree Reminder

The other day I met a friend for dinner at a lovely restaurant around the corner from me. It had an urban industrial feel to it with big brick walls and spiral staircase, lots of small lamps creating a cosy atmosphere and huge sofas to slouch on while having a craft beer. Combine that with delicious food, an interesting wine list and good service and I almost felt like I was back in Europe.

After dinner, my friend offered to walk me to my car, but I declined as I had parked just around the corner. So we said bye and walked off into opposite directions.

Silly me.

As I was walking towards my car, I realised that my car was the only one left on the road and that there were no people around. In a week full of rape and murder stories, this didn’t make me feel particularly comfortable…

All of a sudden, two car guards jumped up from where they had been sitting and ran towards me. The two guys started talking at me about how they had been looking after my car. They came so close to me that I was scared and even though neither one of them looked particularly strong, there was no doubting the fact that if they wanted to attack me, I would have no chance.

Taking my heart into my hands, I tried to behave as normally as I could, greeted them and put my bag in the boot. I took my wallet out to signal my good intentions of wanting to pay them and got into my car. The guards were pushing their faces onto my window, talking and making gestures - they seemed drunk and hyped up…

My heart was beating fast. I took a deep breath, opened my wallet and took out the first note that I found. R20 (EUR2) seemed to have been a satisfactory amount – they greedily grabbed the money and eased of the car. I locked the door and pulled away.

Nothing broken, no one hurt - all good.

In retrospect, I was foolish to refuse being walked to my car. After all, TIA and I should have known better. But in a strange sense, I am quite thankful for this reminder – better a painfree reminder every now and then, then a false sense of security and a painful encounter…