Adrift

Awkward Interaction: An encounter I had with the police a few years ago.

I had just left home in the car when I noticed that the car behind was a police car. As you do, I automatically become self-conscious and paranoid about my speed and driving, and after a few miles was getting fed up driving with one eye in the mirror and the other on the speedo.

Eventually I had enough and decided rather than staying on the main road I would turn off and take a different route. The police car continued the same route behind me. Now I believed they were deliberately tailing me.

My god, what had I done? I started racking my brain over the past few weeks trying to figure out how I had transformed into this wanted criminal mastermind. Nope nothing……..

I took another turn, they continued behind. Blimey, IT IS me they’re after. At this point even my wife who is sitting alongside me is starting to get a bit concerned.

Up ahead I see the turning for a country pub we used to go to. That will do I thought, I’ll pull in there, let them pass and get back on my journey.

I turn left down this narrow lane and look in my mirror. Yep you guessed it, there it was behind me.

Now what do I do? This lane is a dead end that only leads to the pub, which normally wouldn’t be a bad thing but today we need to be elsewhere……….

We get to the car park at the end of the lane. Now what? Awkwardly we get out of the car and head towards the pub, making out we are looking for someone.

A voice from behind says “I bet you thought we were following you?”

Casually we just try and laugh it off while trying to make out this was our route all along and not to look guilty (to be honest I’m not sure we did a very good job of this).

We walked slowly towards the pub letting the officers pass us and head into the bar.

As soon as the door closed behind them, we rushed back to the car and headed on our way, no doubt leaving the officers to have a chuckle at our expense over lunch.

Paranoid? Yes.

Guilty? Only of being me.