ONE TREE, TWO COUSINS, AND FOUR FLAT TIRES

It was Halloween and I was 19 years old. I had just recently come to my senses and was off drugs and alcohol. I was trying to rebuild my life and become a better person. I had a good job and a dependable car and I was into having good, clean fun. I thought it might be fun to go Trick-or-Treating. The last time I had gone was a few years earlier when I made my own Freddy Kruger costume. It wasn’t bad if I do say so myself, and I had gotten some good compliments about it.

I felt like I was too old to go Trick-or-Treating, though. I went to my cousin, Tim’s house to see if he wanted to go. I could drive him around from house to house in exchange for a percentage of his treats and we could hang out like we did when we were younger. He’s only a couple of years younger than me so he thought he was too old, as well. He said we should go get my younger cousin Thomas who had recently gone with us on a camp-out and offer him the same deal. That sounded good to me, so that’s what we did.

I got a big, brown paper grocery bag and rolled the top down about halfway, and sat it in the front seat between me and Tim. Each time Thomas came back from a house we would empty his bag into the big one and soon we had several pounds of candy and a few rocks.

After we had hit several neighborhoods in his community, we headed up the main highway toward mine. All of a sudden, I saw blue lights behind me. I stopped and rolled my window down and waited for the officer to walk up. He said someone had been setting fires all along the side of the roads in the neighborhood and wanted to know if we knew anything about it. I told him we didn’t know who was doing it, but I had stopped to put one out earlier, before sunset. I was hoping we could be on our way after that but then he said, “Y’all been drankin?” When I said, “No Sir,” he said, “What’s in the bag?” I said “Candy” as I tilted the bag up for him to look into. A big smile came across his face as he chuckled. Then he told us to be careful and he walked back to his car.

We went to a few more houses, then decided to call it a night. We were on the way to take Thomas home when we came to a place where my aunt Lola Mae lived years ago. The house was gone but the big oak tree and the circle drive were still there. Just as we came to the drive, Thomas said, “Drive around that tree.” I wasn’t going that fast so I turned and drove around the tree. Just then, I felt something bump the bottom of my car, first at the front and then at the back. I had driven over something. I continued back onto the road and to my sister’s house just a short distance ahead. When I got out to see if there was any damage, all four tires on the car were flat.

I wanted to scream. I wanted to hit Thomas for telling me to drive around that tree. He assured me that he didn’t know that would happen. I halfway believed him, but nothing I could do to him would fix my tires. I had to wait until the next day to get back on the road.

We can learn a lesson from this experience. Those of us who are on this road to heaven need to stay focused and never take a detour. Sometimes though, we do veer off the road and something similar to this happens. We’re sidelined for a while. Sometimes for a long while. The key is to never leave the road, but if we do, for some reason, we need to get back on the road as soon as possible with renewed determination to never be misled again.

By the way, I haven’t celebrated Halloween in the last twenty-two years and I never took my kids Trick-or-Treating because I discovered that it’s Satan’s holiday, and it’s not something that God’s people should celebrate. Click on the link below for a great Bible-based video that explains the evils of Halloween. Thanks for reading my blog, and thank you, Tim and Thomas, for that night and the great memories.

Ghosts and Spooky Spirits

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