The big, bad world touched our safe, little neighborhood this week. Around Halloween, I found three smashed pumpkins littering our gravel road. Sadness engulfed me as I thought of the children who lost a little of their innocence and trust when they discovered the theft of their decorations. My heart ached to think of the anger, hurt and self-absorption of thieves who would behave so callously.
When I noticed one of the pumpkins was intact, having landed in the soft grass lining the ditch, my mood brightened. The thieves hadn’t been completely successful.I toyed with the idea trying to find the owners. Maybe an ad in the paper or posters on telephone poles. In the end, I decided to give the stray pumpkin a home on my doorstep and eventually cook it down.
“Take that, thieves,” I said, in case any pumpkin snatchers lurked in the woods beside the road, as I lugged my find home. “Your nastiness won’t triumph here!”
My bright mood lasted until Sunday afternoon when our neighbor called. She’d found a meth lab across the road from ours, while walking in the woods behind their house. “The police thought it was pretty recent. They thought the manufacturers were probably dropped off by their cohorts and picked up again once they were done.” She called all the neighbors. Now we’re on the look out for suspicious vehicles, strangers in the woods, bad odors, muddy footprints.
I’m sad again today. Our little gravel road let in the big, bad world again. Strangers invaded our woods. This time they left nothing to be rescued, only a sense of violation and an atmosphere of fear.
What can I do in the face of such calculated evil? Lock the doors at night, walk in the daylight, and pray for our neighborhood’s safety and the transformation of such depraved men.
