Good Samaritan gone mad!??

ya think??
I'll let you decide?!!

So I was at the mall tonight.... of course till the doors closed.  So I leave, out the back door, through the parking lot.... ALONE.  (my friend went out another door)

As I walked out - I looked around the parking lot.  I always do this.... I like to be familiar with my surroundings. And as I casually looked around, I saw a young boy walking down the sidewalk.  Immediately my brain goes into "protect" mode (just in case)  I purposely don't make eye contact and hurry to my truck.  (Not in an obvious asshole kind of way... just cautiously.... taking note of his whereabouts)  Anyway... I'm trying to hurry up and get in my truck without obviously watching where the boy is going.... 
(ahhh crap - he's heading my way!)

Then I hear it.....

The words I dread....


"Excuse me ..... ma'am....??"

CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP.....

I slowly turn around....

"Yes....?"  I meekly reply....

"I'm sorry to bother you ma'am, but is there any way you could give me a ride home?"

Well immediately my brain starts going through 1,000 scenarios.
What if he's looking for a "good time"?
What if he's drunk?
What if he's carrying a gun?
What if he is a decoy for someone else?
What if there is a evil scary person ducked in a vehicle close by waiting for his foothold into my vehicle?

And then my heart takes over.... with 1,000 more....
What if he really IS stranded?
What if he has no one?
What if that was MY son?
What if I'm the last kind person he sees tonight?
What could happen to this poor thing if I walk away?

My heart wins.
It always does.

So I slowly turn and ask him where he lives.  (He asks me if I know where WKU campus is.... bless his heart.  Yes I do)
I asked why he needs a ride?  What happened to him?  (He informs me that his friends have deserted him at the mall)
**alarms going off in my head**
ok... ok...
What am I gonna do?
He's holding a bag, a shopping bag of some sort.
So I tell him to hang on a second.
I put my purse in the back seat, place my bags in the back end of the truck and get my phone out to hold in my hand.
I turned and said "I hate to do this, but I'm gonna need to see what you have in the bag"
**I do have a BIG heart, but I'm not TOTALLY stupid**
He immediately pulls out cd's and proudly shows them to me.  It's only cd's.  And then without hesitation, he began to empty his pockets showing me he only has keys and a wallet and his WKU ID.
ok... I feel a bit safer.

In ya go.....
and we're off.....

Although I was still a bit edgy, my brain still pulling and throwing ideas and flashing warning sirens in my head - he was rather chatty on the journey.
He's from Louisville.  He's at WKU for the meteorology program.  He's a freshman.  His grandmother is a high school teacher and his grand parents are well traveled.  He's been to 30 states, Mexico, the Bahamas, and he's been on two cruises....
He then asked me if he needed a haircut - to which I replied indeed.  He said his grandmother would die if she saw his hair so long.
There was alot of small talk about the weather and Bowling Green and Louisville and on and on.....
Then I asked how school is going for him....He's not doing well in school because he lacks motivation and he's not very good at math. He told me he's really gonna work on his motivation over the summer.  I told him that comes with age  (it did for me at least!)  He then informed me that the Aspergers makes it harder too.  (If you don't know what this is.... Aspergers is a type of pervasive development disorder (PDD). PDDs are a group of conditions that involve delays in the development of many basic skills, most notably the ability to socialize with others, to communicate, and to use imagination.)

Well - my heart has now melted.
Maybe I could have been in danger, maybe I did something crazy, maybe I wasn't cautious enough...

But NOW - all I can see is a sweet young boy who was just TOTALLY mistreated by a group of peers that he referred to as friends.  And in my head - I now envision that they probably did it on purpose and were now sitting in that dorm laughing their butts off.
(**warning sirens have stopped and momma bear has kicked in!**)
Shame shame on people.
And you know what he told me?!!!   - he told me they probably left him because he lingered longer than he should have in a store... defending them...
Honestly - who does that????

So when I got him safely back to his dorm, he thanked me repeatedly for my kindness, and even went so far as to send well wishes to my friends whom I told him had recently married....
What a sweet sweet boy you are little Steven and I wish you the very best.

And to the A-holes that deserted you in the mall with no ride and no where to turn, forcing you to turn to a STRANGER in the parking lot  (I shudder to think what if he had asked someone else for a ride!!!) 
well.... I can only hope that one day you will see the unkindness of your actions.

Sometimes (well .... most of the time actually)  I'm glad my heart leads over my mind.


OH - and just a side note here - remember my friend who was at the mall with me....... yeah - I PURPOSELY pulled up beside her on the main road so she could SEE I had a strange person in my vehicle.  (That way if God forbid something DID happen to me, she could maybe identify that I had a stranger with me and possibly what he looked like??!!)
yeah
She never even saw me.
Drove by her TWICE
Saw my vehicle, but never noticed the stranger in the passengers seat!  LOL
Thanks D  ;-)