Don’t thank me...Thank the laws.

So, I am driving along listening to Justin Timberlake & T.I singing "Dead & Gone"…… "I turn my head to da East…laaa…daa…laa laa….-body…by my side…" and I come up to a Pedestrian crossing.

There are 2 guys standing there waiting to cross. I slow down and stop as per the road laws of Australia, Queensland and probably most of the civilized world.

As I look, I realized that the guys waiting to cross the road are what you would call your every day "Druggies". Unkempt hair, badly dressed (faded long Board shorts, a ripped neck t-shirt and oversized collared shirt of some description, teamed with brand new expensive running shoes and no socks), scabs and sores all over their exposed body parts….and a whacked out glazed expression on their pale grey sunken eyed faces that does not allow them to open their eyes fully or close their mouths at all.

I sit there as they stare and try to figure out whether my car is still moving or not. They cautiously take a step out and to my utter enjoyment, get a little freaked out with the black and white lines on the crossing. Clearly the road markings are playing havoc with their "enhanced" perception because when they walk, one leg seems to move as it's told, while the other leg is confused and takes turns making SMALL steps…and then BIG steps. Meanwhile, the arms have drawn the hands up near their chests so they don't get in the way of walking. The aiming and steering for a straight line seems to be done by the tongue.

As they near the other side of the road, one of them put on his most civilized charming missing toothed smile…..turns around to walk backwards and waves at me saying…"Thanks Love".

I sit there and I do that…"I don't want to seem impolite and not smile "type smile where you press your lips together and only do a half smile type of thing. I give a little cursory "lift the finger off the steering wheel" wave, because I don't want these guys to mug me 2 months down the track.

What these guys don't realize is….it's not my "niceness" that made me stop at the Pedestrian crossing to let them cross. The LAW had made me stop.

Don't THANK me for obeying the law.

If it wasn't for the …"No running people over" or the "have to let people cross the road safely at the crossing "laws….. The fact that there may be witness' AND I was worried about damaging my car….

 

…I would have run your druggy ass down.