Witness

Today I had to run an errand for work, so I dropped Kathy off at the house and drove off. This put me home much later than usual, and I when I did get back, our son and his girlfriend were out walking Kodiak. Since this meant I didn’t get my evening exercise, I walked up to church to put away some donated food.

Walking down my street on the way home, I saw this guy climb onto the hood of a car that took off toward me. I thought they were just goofing around, but then he yelled at the driver to stop and let him get off. The car stopped, he jumped down and walked off, missing a sneaker.

I saw it was a young woman driving. She turned around and came back to our house, stopped and asked me if I had seen the guy on her car. I glanced at Kathy, who looked a little dubious. I hesitated a moment and then said yes, I had seen what happened.

“Who was that guy?” I asked her. “He’s the father of my children”, she said through her tears. Wonderful, I thought. Just what I need—some crazy guy coming after me for interfering in a family quarrel. The thing was, she talked about doing a police report and wanted me as a witness. If I had said no, I realized she would once again be alone—her word against his. I couldn’t do that. Some months ago, I pleaded with my niece to file domestic violence charges against her husband. I just have this thing about women who are threatened by idiot men. I’m not in favor of it.

It’s been a few hours now and the police haven’t called me. I suspected she might change her mind. I pray she makes the right choices.