An Angel on my Shoulder

Years ago I was living in Upstate New York, my parents bought a farm and it was several miles out of town. We had moved from Nazareth, Pennsylvania that summer and I had gone from a child to a young woman in the few months I had lived in this new place. I was going to be a sophmore in high school...had spent the summer picking peas for local farmers and had some money to buy a pair of pants...I had no clothes...the clothes budget was very tight and I was teased terribly for the continued repeat of my clothing...I was desperate to get to town to buy something to wear to put me out of my misery...the teasing was intense and my need to fit in, in this new community matched that intensity.

My mother had a brand new baby, and a toddler that were always either napping or needing so the chances of a ride to town were impossible...I asked anyway...I could walk...that was as good as it was going to get, ..so I made my way down the long highway to town.

It was quite a hike, maybe 6 miles, but I arrived in town safe and sound and made my way to the store and bought a pair of white painters pants...A real score...worth the long hot walk along the edge of the road...but now I had to make my way back...I headed home...weary from the heat and the length of the walk I was wearing out fast...One foot in front of the other...

I had made it well over half way home when a car pulled up...I man, maybe my father's age was smiliing and asked me if I needed a ride...I knew the answer was supposed to be no...he was a stranger, and you dont get in cars with them. I had just blossomed and had all this attention and power that come with curves that I did not fully comprhend, and he was old enough to be my dad...he was not going to hurt me...So weighing the risk factor to the exhaustion I felt I decided it would be ok...I climbed in the gold 4 door sedan and the door latched, the air conditioning blew on my face and my tired legs were grateful to stop. the cart slid away from the shoulder. We
proceded up the road he asked me questions about where I went to school and how old I was...dad type questions...then the energy shifted, he started telling me how pretty I was...that didnt seem too dad like, he was looking at me in a way that made the hair on the back of my neck rise and my warning light was flashing in my mind...DANGER DANGER I had to not let him know I was scared or he would hurt me sooner...I knew that, instinct told me to play along and be an innocent. He told me again and again how beautiful I was and how I should be a model. He wanted to take some pictures of me, I played dumb...he pulled off the highway, through shrubs and trees and into a fallow field, the car was no longer visible from the road and I knew I was in deep trouble...still I was able to remain calm...God was with me...and when the man spoke to me for a final time about pictures, my eye fell on a farmer on a tractor several 100 yards from where we were parked...an angel whispered in my ear and I said "Maybe my dad would like to be in the pictures too" I then pointed to the stranger working on the tractor, the man in the gold sedan reached over me and opened my door and shoved me out hard onto the ground and threw his car into reverse and tore back out through the underbrush and on to the highway beyond...I stood up and ran the last few miles to my parents home through the fields, getting scratched and bruised as I made my way to safety. I arrived home and my grandma, who was visiting lectured me on being a mess, .never had a lecture been so welcomed...I was safe...I did not say anything to my parents. I knew that they would punish me, and that perhaps never let me go to the store again. I kept the fear and the danger to myself...but I tell you now that man was going to hurt me and the angel that told me to say dad..knew that would send fear through his heart and that single sentence saved me...I know angels are there for our protection, even if we may make a bad choice. I am grateful that I was able to listen, and was loved enough that day, that my life, and virtue were spared.