Uh oh

Sometimes you just get a bad feeling. I had such a feeling at this gas station where one tank seemed to be fine and the other said “Condemned.” Would it blow up on us all? Who knew?I got another bad feeling yesterday at the Dunkin’ Donuts where four very small children were sitting all alone. The eldest looked almost six. Then there was one four, one three and one about 15 months. The six-year-old put the little one in a high chair and pulled her to the table. Then they all sat looking out the window.“I’m not running a day care center!” the lady behind the counter suddenly yelled over to them. “You just tell your father that!”“Where is he?” I asked when I approached to order my latte. I too had noticed the absence of a grownup.“Search me!” she said.” He said he had to go to the ATM.”“Oh. Well let's not make the children feel bad!”“I know, but for God’s sake!”I walked over to them. “Hey guys.”They smiled up at me. “Shall we watch for him together?”“Yup” they said and we turned and all looked out. “Is he in your car?”“Nope. That’s our car there. It’s red,” one said.“Hey my car is red!” said I. “Two red cars!” they said and laughed.“I’m sure he’ll be back in a sec.”I went to collect my coffee then and when I turned around again the dad was back. I ducked into the bathroom at that point and so didn’t hear what the woman behind the counter might have said to him. I did note that his back was very straight as he left the shop with his four children a few minutes later.They were a black family. This was the hard part, since every other patron in the place was white and, well, you could sense a lot of judgments and silent assumptions being directed at him. All I felt myself was that same bad “uh oh” feeling I had felt at the gas station. And I was grateful this time too that nothing exploded.