Rosa Nell (I have changed her name to protect her privacy) is a retired lady living in south Alabama. She is a widow who has a comfortable home and a satisfying social life. She was a pretty girl who matured into a soft round woman. She and a couple of friends, Pauline and Evelyn, meet monthly for informal book club discussions and more often to try new restaurants and take field trips to interesting places.

One day Rosa Nell was in the front yard of her rural home. She had pulled weeds from her flower beds and then swept off her front porch and, broom in hand, started to go in. She saw a ratty old black pickup drive by on the road out front, pass her house, then back up and pull up in her driveway. A guy who looked to be in his late thirties, and as ratty as his old truck, got out and walked up to her. Without a word, he hugged her tightly, both arms wrapped around her. She was so startled she dropped the broom.

Then he walked back to his truck, and with one brief glance backward, drove off. Rosa Nell stood there speechless and confused. "Well," she thought, "I've heard of drive by shootings, but a drive by hugging? What on earth?"

She went in the house thinking what would happen if she called the sheriff's office. They would ask "Did you feel threatened? Did you resist? Did you know him? Did you get a license plate number?" No, no, and no. And a scruffy guy driving an old pickup? There were tons of them in the county. It was hard to explain, but she had felt no fear at all. It was like that guy had been a scared child hugging a teddy bear or his puppy. The sheriff's dept. might think she was daft or something. She decided to hold her tongue. She didn't say anything to her friends either.

After a couple of months she was raking leaves when the old pickup pulled up again and the scruffy guy approached her with his arms out and embraced her again. He held her tightly. He was weeping, his face was on her neck, she could feel tears wetting the ends of her hair. He sobbed so forlornly she gingerly patted him on the back and said, like talking to a child, "There, there, it'll be alright." His sobs abated and he staggered to his truck and drove away. She never saw him again until 3 years later when she passed the courthouse and saw him shackled, being led inside.

She got out of her car and as the deputy passed with the scruffy man, she said to him "It'll be alright." He said to her "Thank you, for everything. It'll never be alright, but thank you anyway." He gave her a sad crooked smile showing tobacco rotted teeth.
Rosa Nell cried all the way home.

susil