People sometimes do bad things, and here's a perfect example, Julia...

We went to the Children's Museum one Sunday, Julia and I.

After the museum closed, we decided to grab a drink at the local gas station near the interstate exit.

I pulled in, got out, and motioned for Julia to join me.

Julia asked, "Can I stay in the car while you get it?"

Sometimes, I will leave her in the car, but only if I'm parked in front of the windows, so I can see her. I was not parked in front. More importantly, it was a gas station in a not-so-good part of town. It's not that bad really. I sometimes eat at the Burger King next door, and I often go to the Walgreen's across the street, but you can definitely see where people might get nervous based on the shady-looking characters that sometimes frequent the area. Laura can't believe that I go to either the Walgreen's or the Burger King there.

"There was a gun fired at the bus stop there! Did you know that?" she asked as if to say, 'What are you thinking? Dumbass!'

I shrugged and said, "I've never seen anything like that. It's not like bullets are flying all the time. I've never had to duck while running into a store around there."

So today when Julia asked if she could stay in the car, I said, "No."

"Why?" Julia asked. "Someone might take me?"

"That and the fact that this isn't a good neighborhood."

"Why isn't it a good neighborhood?" she asked.

"Well, sometimes people do bad things."

"Like what?"

"For instance, did you see the glass in the parking lot? Sometimes, people break things," I said.

"Why?" Julia asked.

"I don't know," I said. "Sometimes they do."

We rounded the corner and walked inside. It was as hot inside as it was outside for some reason. I realized very quickly why when I looked towards my right. There was a guy there scooping big chunks of glass into a dustpan. There was a lot of it to clean up because the right front window pane was busted completely.

To top it off there was a truck outside of the shop that had its front end bashed in a little bit. There were assorted fluids draining from truck in a multi-colored pool.

I pointed to the broken window and said, "And here's a perfect example."

"What happened?" Julia asked.

"I don't know," I said, but it looked pretty obvious that someone had run their car through the front window.

I heard some people asking the front teller, who filled them in on the story.

Of course, I had to find out, so I asked the teller what happened when I was paying for our snacks.

The story went like this. The guy driving the truck lost control for some reason, sped through the parking lot and crashed into the front window of the store. He stumbled out of the truck, walked into the store, grabbed a diet soda, paid for it, went back to his truck to retrieve his stash of whatever drugs he had on him and ran off.

To top it off, the guy was bleeding from several cuts including a cut from a tooth that protruded from his up lip. That didn't stop him from stopping to get a refreshment.

We got back in the car and I said, "So you see. This is why I don't want to leave you in the car... because people sometimes do bad things."