Wrong Place, Wrong Time

Firstly, yes i know it has been nearly 2 weeks since the last post, i'm sure it wasn't intentional by any of us, time just slips away when you are distracted by real life.

Last night i had a bit of a too-close-to-home experience, literally. When my boy and i first moved out of home to live together, we rented a very cute little house in my old neighbourhood, the neighbourhood where kids play up and down the street, riding their bikes, offering to wash your car, people of all ages walk dogs at all times of the day and night, there is a grade school on the next block - as well as a corner store.

We have since moved to another suburb, but have friends that still live on that side of town so we are constantly travelling through. Just Saturday night i was visiting a girlfriend, my boy was at a football game, and driving home at 6pm i thought i would indulge and stop at the store for an ice cream. As i sat in the car fumbling with the packaging a chill went up my spine and for some reason i quickly reached out and locked the car doors... i was still thinking how strange that was when i fell asleep hours later.

Last night at 6pm we were heading back from that side of town as we pulled up to the cross street where the shop is, there were ambulances and countless police cars surrounding this painfully normal and boring store. First thoughts were that possibly the shop had been held up and someone had gotten hurt, as we could see alot of movement going on inside the store among ambulance and police officers. Later that night we returned past the scene (we had to pick something up at a friend's place, we weren't rubbernecking!) and the whole area had been cordoned off with tape. That's when i realised that something bad had happened.

The front page of today's newspaper explained that a man in his 20s had been stabbed in the small car park and had staggered inside the store, where he had collapsed, and later died. That was shocking enough for me to digest as this store is literally one block from our old house. When i turned the page for more details i saw the pictures of the crime scence - that's when i realised that exactly where the man had been stabbed, was where i sat in my car exactly 48 hours earlier and shivered enough to lock my doors...