Joy Ride

There's something about looking into my rear view mirror and seeing a police car directly behind me that makes me instantly nervous. No matter if I've been following every rule of traffic, I feel guilty just the same. It's totally irrational, seeing as how I've never been in any trouble with the law and have only received one ticket in the nearly fifteen years I've been driving. And strangely, I'm not bothered in the least when my best friend, who actually is a police officer, is riding in the car with me.

Ordinarily, I'm a very cautious driver, but today while driving home from my mom's house, Caitlyn cheerfully requested that I drive the way she "drives the Tigger boat"...by which she meant that she wanted me to steer the wheel back and forth, back and forth, the way she does on one of the kiddie rides at Walmart. Since we weren't on a highly traveled road, I indulged her. Fits of laughter erupted from the backseat as Dylan and Caitlyn cheered me on. "Again!" they'd beg, and I'd relent, each time with the promise that "this is the last time!" So imagine my surprise when I glanced into my rear view mirror and saw, of course...a police car. I have no idea how long it had been behind me, but I know exactly how long it stayed behind me--all the way until I turned off onto our own street. Once I saw it drive on, I finally exhaled and then laughed to imagine what I might have said had I actually been pulled over. "Sorry, officer, I'm just driving the way my three year old does with Tigger." Somehow, I don't think they would have been as amused by it as we were.