Your Happy Place

A Van!

A Van drove right by me- almost ran me over.

I haven't seen a moving vehickle in so long, I just stood in the middle of the road shocked as it came barreling towards me.

It was full of teens, and as they swirved to miss me- I saw their shocked faces matched mine.

Teens. In a Van. A Van?! Only The Communities still have working Vans. Where did they come from? Where were they headed? Why did they seem so surprised to see me? I'm not the one driving a Van!

They stopped the van a ways down the road, and piled out yelling at the driver and began to search for me.

I of course played it safe, I haven't lived this long on the road by not. Right after the initial shock wore off, I dove into a bush and hid. It was a graceful leap and roll, as I rolled that is what I thought.

Until I actually landed on the thorns.

Now it's been two hours and the group in the van is calling off the search- why did they bother to search? Maybe they're nice. Maybe they're not.

Maybe they're deciding to camp out here. Yep. Darn!

So I'm sitting in a bush waiting for dark so that I can slink away-

But there's a Van- a working Van, full of teens, who are fighting with each other and is one of them chained up? And now- Music?

They dance around, all happy- Happy. It's a somewhat sad kind of happy- but that's the same as overjoyed nowadays.

And I'm beginng to think, maybe I should climb out of the bush and say Hi.

But the clinking of the chains on one of the girls keeps me crouching.

Besides, I'll probably need the rest of the night to figure out how to say Hi without scaring them.

"Hey there, I'm the guy you almost hit with the Van"?

"Hello- don't mind me- I'm just crouching in a bush for my back"?

"Howdy neighbors"?

"Top of the Morning, mind if ask where you found a working Van?"?

Thorns in the backside are terrible for concentration.