Lessons in the Hunt

As I headed back to the pool, I decided to ask one of the employees if they knew who this kid was.  Somehow his reaction to me asking his name didn't sit right with me.  As I walked into the pool house, I immediately spoke with a pool manager.  I described the kid and said his name.  The manager gave me a inquisitive look and asked, “Don't you mean so and so?”  I told her I wasn't sure because this was the first time I had met the boy.  I described the boy again and told her what had happen.  She assured me it was this other boy, because he had just left the pool and was walking across the same street I was riding my bike down.  I told her my plan of talking to his parents, but she wasn't sure were he lived.    She also wasn't so sure how supportive the mom would be regarding correcting his behavior.  She was going to write his behavior down and suspend his pool privileges for the next three days.  I told her I appreciated it and thought to myself mom still needs to know.  I jumped in the pool to cool down from the chase, but my intentions to teach this young man a lesson was still heated.

The process of finding this young man's house was slow.   Through my connections I had found out that a family in my church was having trouble with this same boy.  My intent was to ask the dad of this family where the boy lived.  Because of my work picking up, I actually started thinking about putting it off.  My rationale was that he probably paid the price by losing days at the pool.  I also started to think that the mom may not even care about correcting her son.  I even started to think to myself, Who do you think you are trying to teach this boy a lesson?  You're not his parent!   I kept putting it off until a storm and eggs entered my life.

The worst wind storm of the summer hit our town a week after the pool incident.  Wind measured almost 110 mph in our town.  The next day I spent the evening picking up limbs.  I also noticed that a church sign promoting a community outreach function had blown away.  I had put it up in my yard the week before the pool incident.  I didn't think anything about it until a few days latter when I received a phone call from my daughter.  By the sound of her voice she was a little upset.  "Dad, did you know someone egged our house!"  "No I didn't. Where is it located?" I replied.  She said, "It's on the front of the house".   I asked her if she had seen any other spots and she "No I don't think so".  As I hung up the phone I thought, I’ll clean it up after work today.  After work I looked around and noticed another egg splatter on the front of the house and remaining egg shells on top of my roof.  My guess by the location of the splatter was that they would have had to come up on my lawn to hit the front of my porch and miss the overhang.  Finding out where this boy lived wasn't going to be put off any longer.  That evening I would be going to church and getting the information I needed.

Before our Bible study, I tracked down the dad of the family who had trouble with this boy.  I told him of the pool incident and the boy's name.  I asked if he would be willing to let me know where he lived.  He did and also offered to go with me if I wanted him to.  I told him he was welcome but it wasn't necessary.  As I struggled to pay attention during the night's study, I played through my head what I would say to the mother.  I had made up my mind that I would be direct and to the point.  I would emphasize that he needed to stay away from my house or the next call would be to the police to file a complaint.  Once the class was over I made sure my wife caught a ride home.  I met up with the other dad.  He said he had talked it over with his wife and decided he should go.  I thanked him for his support and I told him that I would follow him to the house.  As I started up my vehicle and pulled out of my parking spot I thought,  It's probably a good thing he is coming along. I don't know what I'm getting myself into and a witness might be good to have.