Out-foxing a Fox

There are two young men at church who are just at the age to find being a pest is the best entertainment in the world. These kids are just about the right age to be my grandchildren had I followed the normal path and had my son at 20 instead of 30. The first young man finds great joy in playing cat-and-mouse with my car keys (or whatever else I might have in my hand that he thinks will push my buttons.) This is a game we have played for several months now, and while he has occasionally been somewhat of a nuisance, he is very careful not to cross the line into making me upset with him.

Today, he and his friend took off with several scrub tops that had been given to me to take to work for donation. Rather than drop the rest of the stuff in my arms, I just let him take them. They waited around my car until I was ready to go. When I opened the doors (all of them) and told him to hang the clothes up for me, they both hopped into the back seat. So I drove off with them. Usually, that makes them scramble for the door latch when I stop at the street to check traffic. Today I didn't stop because there was no cross traffic to be seen. They both got really quiet. Then they started asking where we were going. I just went around the block and pulled back into the church parking lot and up to the first young man's mother. I told her that I was taking them for a little while and I would bring them back shortly. She said ok. In the mean time, Friend #2 had made a mad dash out of the vehicle and was headed for the portico. I told him he'd better come back to the car. This definitely got Friend #1's attention: he thought I was upset with them. His mother said, "Well, you've been messing with her, so now you have to do what she tells you." Friend #2 proved himself a true friend, and got back in the car. I left the parking lot a second time with two very subdued young men.

One of them finally ventured to ask where we were going, and I told him he would just have to wait and see. More silence. I pulled into the parking lot of a local restaurant, and Friend #1 asked what we were doing. I said, "Going to lunch." He said he didn't bring his wallet with him. Poor kid, it was then that I let them off the hook. We actually had quite a nice lunch. They talked about their hobbies and interests. When I asked them what they thought was going to happen when I made them get back in the car, Friend #1 said, "I thought you were going to make me run a weedeater at your house or something." I had to laugh at that. I wouldn't do that to them even if I had been angry with them. It was a fun way to out-fox the "fox."