My wife works until 11pm every night. Tonight I was home alone working on my Brief Calculus project. Throughout the evening I found myself craving the refreshing taste of a Coca Cola from the can. When Ashley got home I convinced her to come with me to the gas station to get said can of Coke. She agreed to come along.
As we were driving away from our rental home we realized we don't frequent any gas stations in the area. I remembered seeing a QT (Quik Trip) on the corner of Warner and Arizona Ave. in Chandler where we live. As we approached the convenience store we noticed a large crowd of people and many cars in the parking lot. As I pulled into the parking lot I noticed that the crowd was mostly African American with a few urban Latinos mixed in and some skanky white chicks here and there. We weren't quite sure what to make of it. These people appeared to be high school kids either on their way to, or coming from, a party that had most likely been broken up by the cops. There were four cop cars in the parking lot, so I parked the car as close to the entrance as possible and went into the store with my wife to obtain the coveted can of Coke. "What’s the worst that could happen?" I thought to myself. The cops were there and these were just high school kids, after all.
We bought our beverages and returned to our vehicle without incident. I heard raised voices from a group of African Americans that were standing around the empty parking space next to my car. I unlocked the car doors and we hurriedly got into the car. The moment I initiated the automatic locks, the raised voices erupted into a fist fight not more than 3 feet from where I sat in my car. I immediately started the car and backed out as fast as I could without hitting any of the people rushing to join the fight. As I looked over my shoulder I saw a cop quickly exit his vehicle and draw his night stick and run towards the raucous. I kept driving. By the time we pulled out of the parking lot ten cop cars had converged on the scene with lights flashing. Ashley and I had escaped unscathed. We were lucky. I learned a lesson in life worth starting a web log for.
I am ignorant and naïve.
I never should have turned into that parking lot. Having ascertained the situation before entering the store I should have driven away. I overestimated this crowd's sense of decency and rationality. Ashley heard what these young men were yelling about before the fight broke out. Apparently it was a territorial dispute, possibly gang related. What was I doing there?! Why did I bring my wife of four months there with me?! Anything could have happened. I guess I felt safe. I was not even a full mile from my seemingly safe neighborhood where I rent a two bedroom two bathroom house.
After we got home, Ashley and I discussed the recent events as I struggled to cope with the anxiety I felt. I grabbed the laptop and told my wife I was going to start a blog. This story needed to be told. I felt compelled to publish my ignorance and naïveté to the world wide audience of the interweb.
Click back again soon for more stories of ignorance and naïveté as they unfold.
