The Sometimes Unpleasant Small-Worldness Of Hillmomba

Not so sure I should tell this tale, but ya twisted my arm, so here goes.

I mentioned several days ago how The Gas Station Chicken Store had been without my magical elixir for a whole week. And how soon after, they were out of my preferred 44 oz cups. When such a calamity has occurred before, it could always be traced to the accidental misfeasance of the Man Owner. We even tease him about it, and most times he broaches the subject first, with an apology.

On Thursday, as I was leaving the store with my 44 oz Diet Coke, Man Owner, also on his way out, held the door for me.

"Do you have a minute?"

"Sure. I have nowhere to go, and nothing to do. This is the high point of my day."

Man Owner walked me to the end of the gas pump row, where we stood in the shade, me resting my magical elixir on one of those concrete posts about waist high that prevent idiots from driving into the gas pumps.

"I just wanted to tell you about why you didn't have your soda--"

"Oh! I know it's not your fault this time! Your wife told me what happened. About the cups, and the company going out of business. You're off the hook!"

"Well, it's not that. It's about when we ran out of Diet Coke. We didn't get our order on Tuesday. I had put in my order as usual, the week before, but didn't hear back for confirmation. I tried and tried to call our salesman, but it kept going to voice mail. So I left him a message that I just wanted the same order I always get. When I hadn't heard anything by Thursday, I called the company. All these years, we've never had a problem with him. The only problems were when I forgot to do something! That guy is very dependable. So I said, 'I'm not complaining, but for some reason we didn't get our order this week, and I haven't heard back from our salesman.'"

The guy at the company said, 'Oh. You didn't hear? He was killed in a car wreck over the weekend.' I felt SO BAD! I had no idea! My wife got on the internet, trying to find out what happened. She thought she found the article, but then she said, 'No, this can't be it. It's the same name, and the right date, but the headline says SCHOOL SHOOTER KILLED IN CAR ACCIDENT. That's not him!' 

Well, she got to searching some more, and found out that it WAS him! We knew him as Drew Grant, but he had changed his name. When he was 11 years old, him and another boy--"

"I know about that! My principal used to bring it up all the time, when we did our safety drills. In Arkansas, right?"

"Yes! They pulled the fire alarm, and picked off people as they came out the door. I read about his deposition. The cop asked him if he shot the teacher, and he said, 'I don't remember.' He asked him if he shot the girl next to the teacher, and he said, 'I don't remember.' The cop asked what kind of gun his friend had and he said [I forgot what kind]. Then he asked Drew what kind of gun he used, and he said, 'A [some kind of carbine].' And the cop said, 'We have ways to tell which gun fires which bullets, and the teacher and the little girl were killed by bullets from your gun.' And Drew said, 'I guess I shot them, then.' It was terrible.

Drew's name back then was Andrew Golden. He served his time in juvenile detention, and when he was 18, he was released, and the records sealed. He changed his name. Somebody asked him, 'I know that you got Drew from Andrew, but how did you get Grant from Golden?' And Drew said, 'That was my grandma's name.'

Anyway, after the wreck, the cops were looking for ID, and one found Drew's, and said, 'Wait a minute. This doesn't match up. This can't be this guy.' But another cop on the scene said, 'Yeah, that's him. I know this guy, he changed his name.' 

He was only 33. So polite and pleasant. We'd dealt with him for years. All this time, I'd been doing business with a killer!"

"Well, at least he turned his life around. Having worked with kids that age, I've gotta say, some of them have no idea how life really works. They'll push it to the limit, not thinking there'll ever be consequences for what they do."

"I had no idea. I never would have known, except for the accident."

Let the record show that I don't want any comments on other such events, or what should be done, or anything of a political nature. Mrs. Hillbilly Mom tries to remain apolitical on her blog(s). I only use the name because that's a fact, and that's how it was told by Man Owner. I'm not trying to be sensational. I share this because it's such a weird connection.

And it exonerates the much-maligned Man Owner in MissingDietCokeGate.