Monday, April 05, 2010

Unintentional practical joke - Part 1

I'll tell this story in two parts because that is the way it happened. Two events that were separated by over a year.

The story starts when one of my best friends (we had been roommates our freshman year in college) was living and working in Washington DC. One day, as he was pulling his car out of the parking garage of his apartment building, he happened to pull in front of another car. It wasn't like he cut the guy off but the guy apparently thought my friend should have waited to pull out. Maybe the guy was in a hurry. Maybe the guy didn't like to have anyone driving in front of him. Maybe the guy was just a jerk. Whatever the reason, the other car pulled right up behind my friend and started beeping his horn. My friend felt bad but had no room to pull over to let the guy get around him. He figured that sooner or later he would turn one way and the guy behind him would go another way. So, at the next turn, he was a little dismayed that the guy following turned the same way. "Oh, well," he thought, "he'll turn a different way at the next turn." To help things along, since my friend was in no rush, he turned onto a little-used street. The guy behind turned the same way. Now he began to worry. Finally, after making a few more turns, with "the guy" following on each one, they came to a red light. Now, with both cars stopped, my friend was able to see that there were two people in the car and the passenger seemed to be writing something down. When the light turned green, the guys in the other car sped around my friend's car and finally left him alone.

My friend was worried, though. Had they copied his license number and had some access to the license database? Of course, they had seen which apartment building he was leaving. They wouldn't know for sure if he lived there but it was another worry. But nothing ever happened and, as time passed, my friend thought less and less about it. He had been thinking about going back to school to get his master's degree for some time and months (or may a year or more) after this incident, he was accepted into a master's program at the University of Colorado. It was a sad day for me (I was living in Northern Virginia at the time and we hung around together often) but it was good for him and his career. He was going to be very busy with school and, as it turned out, would be meeting his future wife there. So, the last thing on his mind was a road rage incident 1500 miles away.

That's the way this part of the story ends. All was fine until I traveled to Colorado for a possible new job. We'll finish the story next time.

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