The Perils of a Writer's Imagination

Last night I was cooking dinner when Middle Monster casually stepped into the kitchen and said, "Hey, Mom."  (Drawing out the Mom part.)

I finished shaping the hamburger patty and immediately washed my hands.  Something was up.  Definitely.  "What?"

"Did you know there's a suitcase in the middle of the street?"

Ugh, still washing my hands — I hate raw meat.  More soap, but I'm hurrying, because I have a very bad feeling about this.  "You didn't get close to it.  Did you?"

"Uhhhhh….."

Crap.  "You didn't touch it, did you?"

"Uhhhhh….  There's only gloves and stuff inside."

Taking deep breaths, I tried to remain cool and collected.  "You know there could have been a bomb in there or something."

Cheerfully, Middle Monster replies, "Nope.  I didn't hear any ticking."

While I lectured her on all the horrible nasty things that could have been in that mysterious bag (yeah, we live in "safe" suburbia in a relatively small town, but you just never know), I headed out to investigate.  From a safe, boring distance.  It wasn't a suitcase, but a duffel bag.  Now I'm imagining drug money, dirty needles, weapons….

In the end, the bag belonged to the neighbor across the street.  They have a truck, and I suspect it might have fallen out the back when he pulled into their slightly sloped driveway.  Anyway, I was just starting to recover from the "bomb" scare when we watched the news last night.

Evidently there was an attempted abduction of two girls on the street that is THREE HOUSES AWAY from us.  *dies*  My girls play outside with the neighbors all the time.  They walk down that street each day to come home from summer school.  Needless to say…

I'm having a very hard time letting them out of their locked rooms right now.  I know they have to live and not be afraid, but that's just too close to home.  Literally.

P.S. As far as the attempted abduction, the man never got out of the van, but when he tried to get the girls to come over to him, they smartly ran to a neighboring house.  I have no idea how old the girls were but it's very scary with three little girl monsters in this house. 

P.S.S. And no, the suspect has not been apprehended.  *deep breaths*

But at least the mysterious duffel bag wasn't ticking.