I won’t lie to you, the drive through Atlanta, even on a Sunday morning, was something of a test for me. I’ve been trying to live a life where I can handle whatever comes my way with aplomb. My mantra is that I have had worse to deal with, lost while backpacking in Maine, shark encounters while while surfing, and driving a motorhome in Scotland. We managed to get to Powder Springs, Georgia, with only a couple of wrong turns, no cursing and no freaking out. The level of difficulty was pulling a camper trailer behind the huge van and the endless flow of traffic before a big football game in the city.
This wasn’t a case of me worrying about something that would never happen. There were plenty of reminders on the sides of the road, smashed up cars, police vehicles with lights flashing and small crowds of people wearing masks. I was driving 5 miles and hour UNDER the speed limit, but like Pam said, other drivers looked at the van and the dents on the trailer and gave us wide berth.
Ollie’s house was an interesting stop. Only an hour away from the crazy traffic of Atlanta, I pulled into this suburb that seemed created for hipsters. I could not tell if it was old and fixed up, or if they just recently built it to look old. Lots of bike paths, a long street of buildings that invited walking shoppers, and then what seemed like miles of fancy multi-story apartment buildings. We drove past all of this and then suddenly we were in the old country, with older homes with large properties, and huge shade trees. Pam was admiring all of this, saying ‘if I had to move, I could handle this!’. It didn’t hurt that the temperature had dropped to the point where you could walk outside for a few minutes in shorts and flipflops without sweating.
I was still ready for anything, leaving the gun in the car, tightly gripping the large sum of cash I had to bring for this special dog Pam had to have, and in the other hand, I had the keys spread out between my knuckles. I was telling myself to assess the situation and make sure that I took out the most dangerous person first if it came to that. The house was in front of me now, at the top of a small rise. A yellow and white home with a railed porch out front. I could see a large man sitting in a rocking chair, cradling something in his lap. If it was a gun, I couldn’t make out the model from the distance. I needed to know if it was a revolver. If that was the case, I might be able to count how many shots he could take. There was a little bit of a chance for us if the deal went south. There was a large well-used pleasure boat on a trailer on the street in front of the house, probably purchased with the money from other foolish people that had walked up here with lots of cash and no idea of how far they were from the law.
As we rounded the boat, he stood up and walked towards us and I tightened my grip on the keys and moved in front of Pam to make sure I closed as much distance between as I could before he raised his weapon. It turned out, that I had paid too much attention to the man, because I was caught unawares when a huge dog leaped in the air right in front of me. I dropped my keys and stood in amazement as the dog jumped about 4 feet straight up in the air 3 times. The man yelled at the dog, ‘Bella, settle down!’ . I stood there helplessly as he raised he hands and pointed a puppy at my head….