Every thing was fine and dandy at the local market until the girl with the backpack walked away and left her bag on the seat for too long for comfort.
That's how my Sunday morning was kicked off, with a possibly bomb threat.
I had arrived at the market, decided on what to eat for breakfast and with breakfast in one hand, my coffee and Balboa's leash in the other, I looked for a table to sit at. I went to go grab a particular seat and that's when she arrived, the girl with the backpack. She didn't acknowledge me or my efforts to grab the seat but instead pulled it away and plopped her backpack right on it. I didn't say anything and knew better than to let it bother me so I just turned and look for another seat.
Found one.
Found a seat at the next table so I sat down and started to eat my breakfast. I then watched as the girl with the backpack walked away, leaving her bag on the chair, a reused water bottle filled with juice and another smaller bag on the table. I watched as she went to a nearby vendor.
And then she just disappeared.
She returned several minutes later, down the isle way but it looked like she was just checking to see if her bag was still there and it was. Her bag was still there but then a police officer doing his rounds stopped beside it and asked the others at the table if it was theirs. When they told him it wasn't, he then started to ask whose bag it was. No one remembered or had even noticed the young girl who ten minutes ago had put it down but I did so I spoke up. I gave him a brief description and then he left. People at the table definitely started feeling uncomfortable and so did I. I got up and left the area but surveyed the crowd under the market tents, trying to find this girl.
When I finally caught sight of her, she was too far away and by the time I wiggled my way through the buzzing crowd she was gone. Gone again.
I was super uncomfortable but more curious than uncomfortable. I wanted to find this girl.
She was a foreigner, a possibly backpacker or someone just visiting from out of town. She was a young gal in her mid 20's with long brown, wavey hair that was in a loose ponytail. She had a red tank top on that hand speghetti straps that sat loose on her small frame and hung over her black cotton leggings. When I had spotted her in the crowd and tried to approach her, she had put super shiny gold sunglasses on.
I never did find the girl in the market.
I didn't really know what I'd say to her when or if I had searched her out but I definitely wanted to tell her what she did wasn't cool on so many levels. She had that whole section of the market super uncomfortable and numerous people left because of her mysterious, oversized backpack that she had so carelessly left out in the open. I was almost tempted to put it under the table, to give her a bit of her own medicine if she returned to it. She wouldn't possibly be as scared of it gone as those around those tables were of it being there.
Ended up leaving the market but returning to it before church because I had promised one of the vendors my business card. It was right when I was crossing the street for the church entrance that I saw her. She was with what looked like a group of her friends. I wanted to stop her and talk to her but I figured it was pointless because I could see myself getting super ticked off, telling her off and her laughing off the whole situation and her friends joining in. Who knows, maybe that police officer ended up taking her bag or gave her a hard time when she finally returned for it, I don't know. What I do know was it made for a very, very uncomfortable start to what was simply suppose to be a beautiful Sunday morning at the market and not just for me but for many others. Not cool.
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