Thursday morning seemed pleasant enough. I took up my post about 10:30. People are beginning to get used to me. One guy pointed out that I was late. I explained that I had to stop at the cigar shop, and they don't open until 10:00. I promised to stay half an hour later, though, to make up for the lost time.
People are also beginning to ask how long I plan to keep this up. My response is that I'll be here until my grandsons are in a safe place. That's very simple. I'm 61, and don't expect to live forever. But I expect to live long enough to see them safe, unless pneumonia gets me first. It's cold outside.
After about an hour, I noticed a deviation from the routine pattern. A couple came out of the courthouse. It was pretty obvious they were lawyers. (They're easy to spot. They're well dressed, and carrying briefcases. You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to know a legal beagle when you see one.) They came through the door and headed my way. I wasn't expecting much, since lawyers never even read the sign. True to form, the man turned his head and pretended I wasn't there. But then the woman acted totally bizarre. She stopped. And then, in total shock, I realized she was actually reading the sign. You could have knocked me over with a feather.
Thank goodness, I recover quickly. I gathered my wits and began to watch her closely. Abnormal behavior demands caution. I watched as her nostrils began to flare; her face reddened; she was breathing heavily, like a bull in Tijuana preparing to charge a matador. I watched her feet to see if she'd paw the ground, so I'd have some warning before she charged. And then, in a flash of insight, I realized who she was. This was the ogre from Thursday.
I didn't have long to wait. Her head shot upward, and she fixed me with a gaze that Medusa would have envied. I expected to turn to stone at any second. And then she spoke in a raspy, hate-filled voice. "Your sign OFFENDS me," she snarled. "Take it down right now."
Oh, my God. Imagine my horror. I've been standing outside a public courthouse for three days with a big sign attacking a judge, and demanding justice for my two grandsons. My feet are cold, my hands are frozen, my nose is running, and I've talked to hundreds of people. But now I've managed to OFFEND someone. I felt a sudden rush of self-loathing. How could I be so oafish? Oh, the shame. Thank goodness my momma's not here to see this.
Penitent, I decided to make amends. All I could figure to do was to try and justify my loutish behavior. So, I asked in my most polite voice if she'd like a flyer, so she'd understand what drove me to be such a cad. She informed me very quickly that she wasn't interested. Well.
At that point, I realized this was not your average ogre. This was an ogre who was choosing to be ignorant as well as offended. The average ogre would at least try to find out what the hell was going on before they attacked a stranger in public. But not this one. This was clearly a person who was secure in her ogreness (is that a word?). And at that point my brief moment of penitence passed.
I informed her that since she didn't really care what was going on, she should move along. I believe my exact words were, "Go somewhere else and be offended. I'm busy."
Just to prove that there's always balance in life, the ogre was followed by two separate encounters with ladies of great charm and grace whom I also took to be lawyers. They broke the pattern and took a flyer, read it, and discussed it intelligently. They even made helpful suggestions about potential strategies to bridge the gap between me, my grandsons, and the "justice" system. I don't want to give away the gameplan, so I'll keep you informed as those strategies develop.
Thursday was a good day. I met some nice people with helpful suggestions, and survived an ogre attack. What more could I ask?
