I’ve gotten used to the way some people look at me.. Usually men, they look at me like they are seeing a pink elephant. The women usually smile and yes, even speak to me. Many women have asked me questions.. The men though, sometimes scare me. I used to walk in the park. It’s a safe place. Although, there is ACRES of woods there. One time I parked, got out of my car, and a group of people started making these noises in my direction. They were noises like.. um… some kind of..LU LU LU LU LU LU LU LU LU … I have no idea how to describe it.. and I’m thinking, do these idiots think I’m Arabian and their trying to do some kind of Arabian war cry to mock me?… I started to go on my walk but I stopped, immediately went back to my car and drove off. Figured I’d come back to slashed tires. On another occasion at the park this man walked passed me. The look on his face was really freaky. He was looking at me like I was some kind of alien. His neck was even slightly stretched out.. It was especially weird cause he was SO CLOSE to me and had his eyes on me constantly as walking past… We made eye contact and he really freaked me out.. I haven’t been back to the park since. Whenever I go anywhere now, as I park I take note of the people around me. Are they staring? If they are looking at me a little too hard, I’ll get back in the care, drive away and go somewhere else. I kept expecting to come out of a store one day and have my tires slashed or windows broken.
Then it happened.
I was working a temp job. One day I got off work and went to go shopping.. it was 1 o’clock in the afternoon and a beautiful sunny day… The parking lot was packed. I pulled into a spot next to a red SUV with a guy sitting in the front seat. He must have been waiting for someone who was shopping in the store. I didn’t think it was a good idea to leave my car there. I thought, I should go and come back later. I figured I’d be quick so I just left my car there and went in the store. I was going for clothes and I took a really long time.. I paid, came out side.. Both of my tires on the side next to the guy in the red truck are flattened. I knew it…
I went back into the store. They didn’t care. The manager never even came out to speak to me. Never even saw her. I called the police. As I’m waiting for the police, of course I’m crying….
This old beat up Cadillac pulls up a couple spaces away from me. Guy gets out of the car sees me crying and sees the tires. He asks what’s the matter? I said some jerk flattened my tires. He explained to me how he was attacked by the KKK when he was 5 years old. He said how it’s horrible for someone to do that to a woman. His name was Lou. He was an 85 year old Marine with a dark complexion. Born and raised in Georgia. Says he’ll fix me up. The Police officer shows up. He can’t understand why someone would slash my tires for no reason. He asked me if I could have possible made someone mad while I was driving and they followed me here and slashed the tires because of road rage. As I’m talking the officer, Lou is fixing my tires. He had a portable air compressor to pump the tires a bit. We couldn’t see where they guy hit the tire so we could plug it or something. Once some air was in the tire, he even had a spray bottle of soapy water to spray on the tires. This soapy water bubbled up so we could see the punctures. This dude had EVERYTHING! Well prepared! Alhamdulillah! It was like the guy took a needle and stabbed all over the walls of my tires. No idea what could have made the punctures. The officer was amazed. The guy must have been really mad. But mostly at the front tire. the back tire was punctured about half as many times as the front. The officer left after some time. The Marine was there with me for 5 hours trying to fix the tires. His compressor kept blowing its fuse. Finally, with the combination fixaflat, sealants and air compressor, we were confident I’d make it up the street to the gas station to fill the tires. The compressor just kept dying. You’d never guess this guy was 85. Very strong, moves quick. He kept saying.. “THIS IS AMERICA!”….. He was expecting the guy to come back. Lou was ready to beat the guy who did it. I’m telling you, I bet that he would have given him a real hurting too. Amazing that this dude was 85. Lou said the guy knows I’m now here stranded and thinks I’m alone so he’d probably come to hurt me physically or do more damage to the car. I hadn’t considered that.
Anyway, I thought it was really horrible how someone would slash my tires for no reason other than the fact that they see a woman wearing a hijab and they are ignorant and filled with hate. I can’t prove it of course.. but as the officer said.. ‘why would someone do that for no reason?’….I knew there were hateful and ignorant people out there. But I honestly had NO IDEA.. I mean NO IDEA that there were SO MANY……
At the same time, Alhamdulillah.. There are still people like Lou out there…
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