I was arrested yesterday… twice.
It was a lovely, sunny afternoon when I arrived home from work, so I decided to do a little lawn maintenance – raking and the like. Daydreaming as I toiled, I suddenly hear, “You’re surrounded! Put your hands up or I’m going to shoot!”
I turn around to see what appears to be a five or six year old boy pointing a plastic machine gun at me. Realizing he is from across the street and obviously playing, I chuckled. This apparently made him even more adamant, as he insisted that if I did not do as I was told, he would certainly shoot me. I raised both hands in the air and was promptly rewarded with the sound of gun fire. Apparently satisfied that he had been given the opportunity to shoot someone, he meandered back across the street and I returned to my labor, somewhat amused.
Thirty minutes later, he’s back for another round of intimidation. After insisting that I place both hands in the air again (one didn’t satisfy him), he came up behind me, stuck the gun to my back and proceeded to fire repeatedly. When I jokingly accused him of being mean, he screamed, “Don’t backtalk me or I’ll shoot you again!”
Kids are cute, but kind of scary. I guess I’ll have to wear a bulletproof vest the next time I tackle the yard, or maybe just keep a garden hose handy.
“May the Force be with you!”
My youngest son is at school today, dressed as Darth Vader. He set off to celebrate World Book Day*. His costume is complete with working light sabre, that I fully expect to be “set aside” by one of his teachers … along with his cowboy-friends’ guns, and so on …
World Book Day is officially April 23rd, but we celebrate it on St. David’s Day (March 1st) in UK and Ireland because it is well-established here and schools make a big thing of it before the Easter holidays. So watch out for more arrests on April 23rd!
That sounds like fun!
I was able to resume my lawn work yesterday evening… safely, in the back yard. 8-)