Filling the silence of my car like the explosion from a volcano, the scene struck me hard. I had driven twenty minutes to get here. My vision of my arrival and exit, quite different. I was suppose to drive into a bay, press the button to open my trunk, and peruse Instagram while I waited for volunteers to take five boxes of documents from my car. Shred day is supposed to be straightforward. Uneventful. Almost somewhat peaceful.

It was not.

The line of cars stretched two miles, bending and turnng as it hung to the side of the park. But the people, most of them, were not in their cars. A crowd massed around a blue sedan near the front of the line. Apparently the driver had been trying to break into the front of the line instead heading to the rear. This level of audacity is not acceptable in a small town, especially this one. A glance at the truck who’s job was take all our important secrets and cut them into confetti provided more information. One small truck, no bigger than the Us Two Guys movers who handle all the town moves, was supposed to shred the load of the 40 to 50 cars in this growing line. Impossible was by first thought. Idiotic as my second.

Who thought this truck could handle the job? No one did and tempers were rising. People have already spent too much time in this line and the selfish driver in the blue sedan wasn’t receiving any our normal small town hospitality.

Someone kicked the tire of the car. A big man in a hunting jacket slammed on the hood. This made a younger man with a pony tail shout, “Stop that”. Then I knew two factions had rose quickly: those for the driver and against the driver. A few non- committed people had opened their trunks and were walking boxes to the truck. This enraged a third group who grabbed boxes in an attempt to stop the walkers.

The windows of the blue sedan were shut and the crowd became more agitated when someone threw a cup of something from Chick-fil-a at the driver side window. Liquid rained down the glass.

Against all advice my momma gave me about functioning in a riot(because this looked like the precursor to a riot and because my momma has advice on just about anthing that could possibly happen to me) I got out of my car, and walked over to peek at the driver.

I couldn’t believe my eyes. The driver was Aunt Kay.