“Complacency is the greatest enemy of a warrior.”
Author unknown
In a split second, my slumber shifted to alertness. Eyes open, I did not move. The knock at the door of our camper van had come with authority. It reminded me of those many times, so long ago, that I had been the knocker and then shouted “State Police, search warrant, open the door.” I lay still, secluded in darkness. Windows covered on three sides, I saw no probing flashlight beams or oscillating lights. Was it a friend or foe? Like a GPS spooling to connect with satellites, I remembered where I was. Silence reigned.
After two intense months, our calendar cleared for a few days. We needed to get away and decided to visit Amelia Island, a coastal community on the Atlantic Ocean just north of Jacksonville, Florida, a place we had never been. Because of our short notice, we were unable to make any campground reservations, so we winged it.
Amelia Island’s popularity preceded our visit; there were no campsites available. Seldom a problem in our self-contained stealthy camper van, we defaulted to searching for a commercial business that allowed overnight parking. Using her phone, Darlene located a Walmart nearby and we drove there in the dusk that promised rain. Being retired police officers and rule
followers, we scanned the parking lot for signs prohibiting overnight parking. Finding none, we patronized Walmart for needed items and settled in for the night in their parking lot, or so we thought.
Like in my first book, Villains – Victims – Victors, Chapter 40 – Battle, my brain processed urgent and non-urgent information. As my fingers walked to my gunnysack, where my Glock rested, I remembered the first time Darlene had overnighted in a Walmart parking lot; it was in Fairbanks, Alaska. There, she told me as a police officer she had often seen folks overnighting in the Walmart parking lot and vowed that would never be her lot in life. Things change.
In the darkness, I passed my gunnysack to Darlene who also lay still. She would be my backup. I did not want to move to the car door window with a gun in hand and discover a well-intended police officer who might perceive me as a threat. I recalled a time when I had been that police officer. Before moving forward, I glanced at my watch – it was 2:30.
Looking out the driver’s door window, into the shadowy parking lot, about ten feet away, stood a twenty-some-year-old man in dreadlocks. He wore a Hi-Vis green safety vest, something anyone can get in many stores. Seeing me, he said, “You can’t overnight park here. My assistant manager will be here soon and if you’re here he will call the police and have you towed.” He added, “If you move over to the Win Dixie parking lot, you won’t be bothered.” I didn’t argue, nodded in respect, and prepared to move.
Looking out my windshield, a couple of rows ahead, I saw a pickup camper parked. It had moved in after we had gone to sleep. Our knocker at the door was about to become theirs. Being a pickup camper, its occupants could not see if the knocker was a friend or foe, so they opened the door. Fortunately for them, it was not the big bad wolf dressed in grandma pajamas. Like us, they took the advice of the door knocker and left. Unlike us, they had to again make themselves vulnerable by getting out of their camper to get into the cab of their pickup to drive away.
A career of witnessing victimization makes a person security conscious. Additionally, we try to always park so we have two options to leave: forward or reverse. That way, it would take at least two vehicles to block us in. In twenty-five years as a van man, this practice has allowed me to exit a few uncomfortable situations.
Parked in the nearby Winn Dixie lot, I was wide awake. I set up in bed, leaning against the backdoor. Through the windshield, I watched the Walmart parking lot. There, I watched our knocker at the door go back to work cleaning the Walmart parking lot with his rolling brush-equipped truck and leaf blower. A man working the midnight shift to make a living.
“Don’t be afraid, be ready.” - Author unknown
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