What is power?

Hanna

A neighbor asked me if I could give her a ride.
She was a small lady and very boisterous .. I agreed
to drive her to the market. Somehow, she had the idea
to offer me $20 dollars to drive her to Saugus for a rave.
I honestly did not know what a "rave" is. I declined.
Hanna was incensed and threatened me.

"My friends will come after you." she said.

My friends don't make threats, I thought with a gentle smile.

Hanna asked me to drive her to her mother.
Her mother is a UNH professor . . The mother had bought Hanna
a car, but Hanna's license was suspended.
I was asked if I would drive Hanna to Saugus in the new car.
I declined. Hanna's mother offered me $400 dollars to drive her
daughter to this rave. I declined.

Hanna took her groceries out of my van and said, "Were done."
I asked for the $20. Both Hanna and her mother refused to pay me.
I shrugged and left. Is this what being an Uber driver is like?
A few days latter the police knocked on my door, "Have you seen Hanna?"
She had not returned from the rave and had missed a meeting with
her probation officer. I shook my head "no"...

At the end of the week Hanna turned up with a girlfriend and
moved her things out of her apartment . She said nothing to me.
Her girlfriend was driving the new car the mother had bought.
Hanna is now in jail. She has been arrested for prostitution and
drug trafficking. Her mother told me this, when we met at the
Market Basket.. The arrested had occurred while Hanna was returning
from a rave.

I had been drawn into a risky rave adventure;
because I had been so neighborly.
A criminal relies on the element of surprise.
Hanna showed me my vulnerability ..

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