It may sound odd, but one of my favorite places to walk is in our local cemetery.  I live right next door to it so it is convenient, plus it’s pretty, quiet, and the roads are paved and kept up fairly well.  During our snow-pocalypse this winter the small cemetery roads were the only paved roads nearby.  During the middle of summer, my walks tended to be in the evening.  Usually right before sunset.  I could get a good view of the sunset and enjoy some peaceful, reflecting time.   Except one Saturday in July changed all that.   

The favorable walking conditions in the cemetery is no secret and I sometimes pass several people on their own routes.  However, on this particular Saturday I had the whole place to myself.  Until I rounded a corner and saw a car in the parking lot.  That is not unusual.  Not everyone lives right next to it and so some people drive to the cemetery and then walk.  Or some people park and ponder.  Or some people park and actually visit graves.  I didn’t really think too much about the car in the parking lot but I did notice it.

Another car drove in through the gate.  It was a fancy little black sports car and the driver was driving too fast for the cemetery.  I could tell at once it didn’t belong in my walking place.  I covertly kept an eye on it to make sure I stayed out of its speedy little way.

It pulled into the parking lot and circled the other car then pulled up so drivers were next to each other.  “Crud,” I thought, “what am I witnessing?”

At that point I had past the parking lot and couldn’t keep an eye on them without being obvious.  I just had a feeling I shouldn’t appear to be a witness to whatever was happening.  Two seconds later the black car took off again.  Just as I turned a corner and my back was to them both.  I could hear it coming in my direction.

This is a downfall to watching too many murder-mystery movies with my mom.  I quickly played out the scene in my head.  I accidently stumbled upon some kind of wrong doing and could be eliminated fairly quickly by being run down.  I’m sure it could make a good mystery story somewhere but I didn’t want to be a character in the movie.  Definitely not the corpse that gathers the smart detectives together to solve my murder.

I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw the car turn down the small road and exit avoiding my area completely.  But the other car remained.  I continued walking but tried to nonchalantly keep an eye on the other car.  I would not make the same mistake twice of turning my back to the car unprotected.

After a moment or two, the other car disappeared.  I didn’t actually see it leave the cemetery but I did see it leave the parking lot.  So much for keeping an eye on it.  It made me so jumpy that I avoided walking in the cemetery by myself that late again.

Maybe, just maybe, they were two friends saying a quick hello.

But I have watched too many mystery movies to believe that.