The Little Mugger

Doc. B. and I had only a few days left on Hilton Head Island. We had plans to fill every waking hour and weren’t interested in sleeping the days away. Our plan was to get up early each remaining morning and get in some exercise – a long walk on the beach, a bike ride, some yoga or a jog. My intention was to actually set the alarm to ensure that we kept to this schedule. So when the phone rang on Thursday morning at about 7:20 a.m., I was looking to smack the snooze button. But in fact, I had forgotten to set the alarm. When I finally realized it was my cell phone ringing, I couldn’t imagine who would be calling. It was my friend the "Post Master General" calling from Washington, D.C. (We’ll call her PMG going forward).

I couldn’t imagine why PMG would be calling me at that hour, but it turns out she needed to report a synchronicity that had just occurred. And if she was calling me before 8 a.m., I figured it must be a good one. PMG did not disappoint. Here’s the tale…

PMG had been planning lunch that day with friends. So rather than taking the METRO as she does every other day, she was going to drive her car to work, feed the meter all morning, go pick up her friends for lunch, dine, drop her friends back off, and then feed the meter all afternoon. As she was going to her car that morning, she got to thinking about what a hassle it would be to leave her desk every hour to go give quarters to the parking meter Gods. So at the very last minute, she put her car keys away and walked to the METRO. After much thought, she decided that at lunch time, she’d simply hail a cab and pick up her friends to go eat lunch. Sure, it would be a little more money, but also less of a pain in the gluteus maximus.

So PMG headed down the street, the same old route she takes each day. Within minutes, she was approached by a young boy, of maybe 12 or 13, wearing a hoodie sweatshirt. He had his hands in his pockets and made one of them look like he had a gun. PMG had no idea if it really was a weapon, but he sure wanted it to look that way. The kid said to PMG, "Give me your money." PMG said "NO!" So he said it again, "Give me your money!" She said, "I’m an angry white woman and I’ll kick your ass, now leave me alone!" But he persisted so she made her way toward the street, banging on car windows trying to get the attention of a driver who might be a Good Samaritan and either intervene or at least call the police. No one seemed to be responding so she kept moving quickly toward the METRO station along the side of the street where she could at least be seen. The kid continued to follow her. PMG then got her wits about her and realized that she should be calling the police on her own cell phone.

So she got herself to a point where more people could see her, across from the entrance to the METRO station. The kid must have seen her pull out her cell phone because he promptly headed toward the elevator to go down into the METRO station to catch his get-away train. As the elevator doors closed, that little mugger smiled and waved at PMG. Well, PMG quickly described her location, and the kid, to the police who must have immediately contacted the METRO police because shortly thereafter, up the escalator they came with the kid in tow. The police must have been standing there waiting for him as the elevator doors opened up onto the METRO platform. She identified the kid and they took him away.

And there she was - all alone to go on to work as though it were a morning just like every other morning. But it wasn’t. PMG had almost been robbed. Can you imagine the adrenaline that must have been so obvious in PMG’s body after she knew she was safe from harm? PMG went on to work, trying to decide what her fate was for this day - a day that she was supposed to have driven to work. And had she driven, would something worse have happened? Or was this an open door to something else that was to be? Did she NOT drive her car that morning so that this kid could be caught before he committed a truly serious crime? What did this mean? Was it a higher calling for PMG in some way? Would this kid be forever changed? Would PMG be forever changed?

I suggested to PMG that perhaps she had saved someone else from being robbed or hurt that morning. Some elderly woman who wouldn’t have handled things the same way that PMG had? But PMG couldn’t go for that idea. She’s too concrete. It had to be something that was either going to save that kid from a life of crime or something that would happen to PMG; something not yet known. I thought for a moment and came up with another suggestion. Could it be that all of this happened just so that PMG would call me at 7:20 and wake me up since I forgot to set the alarm? Hmm… Can a synchronicity really be that simple?

UPDATE: That little mugger will have a court date in June at which time he may be able to plead to a misdemeanor charge and be sentenced the same day without need for a trial. The prosecutor asked PMG to prepare a statement about how this has affected her so that it can be read in court, before the sentencing. This way, the kid will hear from PMG that there was more harm done than simply ruining this little thug’s reputation as a tough guy.