Friday, September 28, 2007

I got a speeding ticket the other day, with my 9 year old granddaughter in the back seat. Not on the freeway where normal people would get cited, I was speeding down the main drag of Agua Dulce, a sleepy little town with very little crime and very little Police presence. In a hurry, I drove 45 in a 35 zone. I saw the CHP car and my heart sank faster than I could find the brake pedal.
"I'm an idiot." I revealed to Katie, just in case she'd missed the obvious. I pulled over and waited for the inevitable ticket.
"Mimi?" Katie asked softly. "Will he take you to jail?"
"Why don't you ask him?" I said, hopefully. The pleas of an innocent child might be my only shot at mercy!
"No way!" The child became mute. I was on my own.
After the ticket, as I drove away the kid gave me her take on the situation:
"I think that cop was a rookie, 'cause he was young. That was probably the first ticket he ever wrote- and he got to give it to an old lady!"
Now my humiliation is complete.

2 comments:

Don the Baptist said...

Kids say the darndest things.

Kathleen Flynn said...

I stand corrected: Katie said he was probably surprised that he'd stopped a "grandma". She insists she did not refer to me as an old lady.
Yeah, right.