On this Friday, after we all had finished teaching our classes, the five of us took off on what we felt would be a fabulous camping trip away.
We arrived at the U.S. campsite not too far from our Canadian homes by late afternoon and proceeded to put up our tent and get organized. Of course, we packed great food and drinks for our trip as well.
On the way in I had asked the front gatekeeper to the camping grounds to call a cab for us so we could go into town for the evening. We agreed to meet the cab at the main entrance at 7:30 p.m. Well, the girls had had a few drinks but for some reason I had decided not to have anything at the time and in hindsight discovered that was to be a very good decision.
Around 7:25 p.m. we looked just outside our camp area and there stood the taxi waiting for us. It was unmarked with no lit cab topper. Well, I didn’t feel comfortable about that. I had asked that we meet the cab at the entrance where the gates were now closed so I couldn’t figure out how the cab got onto the grounds.
We were ready to go so we grabbed our things and happily went to the car. Three of us got into the back and two into the front seat. Already in party mode, we were eager to take this safer option of driving there.
However, as I got into the cab, I felt like a knife had gone right through my chest. I didn’t like the feel of this at all. In my heart I knew that something wasn’t right. Nothing on the dash of this vehicle indicated a company car. I told the girls in the back to stay quiet and let me do the talking. This wasn’t an easy task as they were chatting and laughing with each other and looked at me like I was being a buzzkill.
I instinctively moved right behind the driver as he started to pull out of the campsite to the main road. He seemed to be having a conversation with another man on the car phone and it didn’t sound like the cab dispatcher.
Just as we had gone a short distance up the road, he suddenly swerved into the corn fields and kept going. I immediately grabbed the back of his shirt and twisted as hard as I could and said, “Get us out of this corn field and take us to the pub now!!!”
The other girls looked at me like I had lost my mind as I aggressively seemed to take over the situation. I knew things were not right and they soon realized the same. I told one of the girls in the front to put their foot up against the side of the driver’s head and if he made a move of any kind to kick him.
All this time the driver had not said a single word to us. It seemed like ages until he finally left the corn fields and got back onto the road towards to the pub we were going to. I kept the back of his collar twisted and said I would keep twisting if he didn’t follow instructions to get us to the pub.
We finally arrived at our destination and I told all the girls to get out and go inside. Then I told the driver that I was getting out and not to make a single move until I left the vehicle.
When I got inside the pub and reported the incident it just so happened that a few police officers owned the pub. They put out an alert for the vehicle, and the cab driver. Apparently, they found out, he was not a cab driver, didn’t even live in the vicinity and no one knew him at all.
Well thank goodness I went with my instincts and my heart and did what I had to do. The owner of the pub drove us all back to the campsite and stayed there to make sure we were all safe. He said he was pretty sure the driver didn’t have very good intentions for us as the police found out that he had radioed friends to meet him in the corn fields. There could have been a very different ending to this story had I not listened to my intuition.
Just remember to always go with what your gut and heart tells you, thank goodness I did and we all came home safe.