FOUR DAYS IN HELL

Friday, February 1, 2019. It was five days into my stay in the small, idyllic town of Brunswick, Georgia and I was starting to feel like part of the community. By then I had met numerous locals and they had all been friendly and very accommodating. I was also already navigating the city streets like native Brunswickian! I knew where every cup of coffee and Waffle House in town was! And by Wednesday, I’d found some work through a local staffing agency. It wasn’t anything glamorous but at least I was doing something productive with my time. All-in-all, I was enjoying my time in Mayberry – um, I mean Brunswick!

I’d been camping at Blythe Island Campground, which was about a 5-mile drive out of town. The park was beautiful. With plenty of recreational opportunities for any outdoor lover. There was fishing, boating, trails, birdwatching…..wildlife everywhere you looked. At night the deer would come out. My camp neighbors were two mischievous chocolate chip cookie stealing raccoons! (A word to the wise, never leave your cookie canister outside and unattended at Blythe Island! No telling what type of critter will abscond with it!) But the absolute best were the BUNNY RABBITS!! It was A TRIP!! There had to be dozens of them! Everywhere!! Just hopping around, playing and chasing each other all over the park. There were two in particular that would greet me in the mornings and follow me wherever I went until I fed them. I’ve never seen anything like it!

And talk about delicious!!! Free-range bunny rabbits make the BEST stew!!

That was just a joke! Please don’t report me to PETA!

Blythe Island was a great camping experience! And my little rabbit buddies were awesome! But my valve cover came in on Friday, as scheduled, so I had to pack my tent and check out. It was finally time to drop my car off for repair.

Now, the repair installation was only supposed to take a couple hours. My mechanic, Phil, works nights so I couldn’t drop my car off until after 5 pm. The plan was to get a hotel room for that night, since I wouldn’t have a means of transportation, then catch a taxi to the shop the following morning to get my car back.

I was getting dangerously close to my “emergency fund”. The emergency fund was my predetermined minimum balance that I could get down to before I would have to end my road trip and head back to Texas. Although I’d been working the last few days and was starting to earn money, I wasn’t yet able to get ahead. I was concerned that I might have to start wrapping up my trip.

After deliberating on it for almost a full day, I finally broke down and decided to call my brother, Ken (Shout out!!) to ask if he could possibly help me out by reserving a hotel room for me for that night. I had already been online and the cheapest room was over $100. I couldn’t afford that. And I wouldn’t be allowed to sleep in my car at the shop. So I didn’t have many other options.

Fortunately for me, (and probably against his better judgment) Ken was there to help me out of a pickle once again!!

So that afternoon after work I checked in to my room at LaQuinta, right off the interstate. I took a long, hot shower then drove the five or six miles to Dependable Auto to drop off my car. I was planning to catch an Uber back to the hotel but was able to procure a ride from a guy hanging out at the shop for just a couple dollars. I was back in my room, laying on that big, comfy king sized bed and watching Discovery channel before 7 pm.

I was out like a light by 9! The next morning I woke up at 6 am, excited and hungry for that free breakfast they had down in the lobby! I was gonna make myself a peanut butter waffle, dammit!! I checked my phone and realized I had two text messages from Phil from 10:30 pm the night before. Uh,oh…

I needed another ignition coil for one of the cylinders. A minor thing, really. However, the auto parts stores were already closed for the day so he ordered it online! On a Friday night!

So I was screwed!! It was Saturday, my car was in the shop and probably wouldn’t be ready till Monday, and I couldn’t work because I didn’t have a car!! On top of that, now I would need a room for two more nights because I was stranded at the hotel.

To make a long story short, I elected to pay for one more night at the hotel then pull an all-nighter in a cafe or somewhere Sunday night just to save for the additional repair costs. I was still in good spirits….for the most part! Come Monday, all of this would be behind me.

Monday, February 4, 2019. I had spent most of Sunday night sitting on a downtown park bench reading my new used book that I’d recently picked up at Goodwill called No Easy Day. All about the Seal Team 6 assault on Bin Laden’s home. Great book!! Anyway, the park was walking distance from the staffing agency, so at 4:30 am I decided to find a convenience store or diner nearby where I could grab a coffee and be back in time to work.

That’s when things got a little strange……

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/law-order/578400685?i=578401423

4:37 am. Downtown Brunswick.

I was about two blocks from the staffing agency where I was intending to work that day. I had stopped on the corner of the sidewalk to read the results of my Google search for a “coffee shop near me” when a patrol car spotted me, hit his brakes, slammed his car into reverse, then gunned it over to where I was standing. The policeman, we’ll call him Officer I.M. Overzealous, sprang out of his car and approached me. He was vigorous but polite and seemed professional. He asked me a few standard questions and requested my identification. I was very cooperative with the gentleman because I knew he was just doing his job. And I also understood that a person walking the streets before daylight may seem suspicious in a small town. This would not really an issue in a big city like Houston. But considering I had no malicious intent and knew that I had done nothing wrong (except for maybe a curfew violation) I was happy to oblige his questioning. When he asked what I was doing out at that hour I told him I was trying to find a cup of coffee before going to work. I basically told him the entire story of what had transpired that week. Including how my car had been in the shop since Friday afternoon. The whole interview took no more than 15 minutes, then I was free to go. But before he handed back my I.D. he did something kind of strange. He pulled out his cell phone, and said “Okay, this is gonna seem a little weird but….” then started taking pictures of me before I could say a word. I didn’t think anything of it at the time because my rationale was that he was taking my picture as a precaution, in case there was a crime reported in the area. I would do the same thing.

So, no longer in need of coffee (I was WIDE AWAKE now!), I walked back to the staffing agency office and waited for them to open.

I had made an impression with the manager, Shane, at the agency in the few days I was there so he was quick to find me work. He asked me if I’d like to go to the college that day. They were remodeling the library. I said yes, and an hour later I was hammering nails on the roof.

10:52 am. Brunswick Community College.

I heard my coworker say, “What the hells going on down there?!”

I said, “What do you mean?”

He replied, “There’s like, four cop cars down there….”

I said, with a laugh, “Well, there not here for me!”

Right after that I heard, “Mr Parrish, can you come down here?”

“What the FUCK……??”