Thursday, May 27, 2010

Creepy child, creepier mother

I want to preface this story by saying: I prefer my walks with Dante in the morning to be solo walks. Okay, sure if Corbett wanted to join I'd have no problem with it, but as for others, no thank you.

There's this new kid who's moved into the building next to ours, and last weekend he came up to see Dante, and to well, be creepy. He has this air about him that I can't quite put my finger on, but it bugs me. Otherwise though, he's harmless, and he loves Dante (who doesn't?), and Dante seems to like him alright. He was out there again this morning, again with his mother sitting on the stoop in front of their building.

So he came and joined us for our walk (mind you, the way our "walk" goes here, it's more like a stroll around a grassy field that Dante has to inspect diligently, so there's not really much exercise happening). I wasn't too thrilled, but he was fine and I even got to teach him that it's wrong not to pick up after a dog (later he was singing, "Gotta pick up the dog's poo!" over and over again, and hopefully that other brat walking this tiny dog heard).

Then, as I went to the dumpster to toss it out, his mother came over to throw something away, and then made a bit of small talk (about Dante). Then she threw it out there: "You know, I hate to bother you but my phone just ran out of minutes and I have to make several calls, is there any way I could borrow yours?"

Now, for many reasons I would never let a stranger use my phone. In this case though, I wasn't about to go back inside, get it, and then wait while she made calls to how many random places? I muttered, "Ooh, I don't have mine right now," hoping that would imply that I didn't want her to use it. Then she asked about a home phone, which I don't have (but even worse, I'm not letting her into my home when I don't know her and also while Corbett was asleep in the next room!). I apologized and went along my merry way, but man. Creepy new family is gonna make me choose a new morning walk.

by Topher at 8:32 AM |