so saturday night i was working at world cup...it was a nice mellow evening - abby and i had a slow start to the night, so we sat playing rummy with some of her friends for a good hour. i remember thinking "they are so happy and innocent...fifteen years old. life hasn't bitten them on the heels quite yet, it's refreshing to be around them..."

after awhile two college guys came in and told us that their neighbors were complaining about their guitar playing - would we mind if they played in the shop? "you're not going to plug them in, right?" i asked with a grin...they grinned back, and said no...and commenced to sit across from each other and play soft soothing familiar tunes almost until closing time...

at ten minutes to eleven, i went off to clean the bathrooms - part of closing chores (a small price to pay for the great people i get to spend time with at this job). i took maybe seven minutes to swipe everything with some bleach handy wipe thingys, and refill what needed refilling. when i stepped out and looked around, i noticed that everyone was standing very still, and looking quite shell shocked. i went behind the counter and asked the closest person what had happened, and was informed that we had just been robbed at gunpoint, specifically, that abby had been robbed at gunpoint. she was in the backroom sobbing with her two friends (who had been standing there when it happened), and the police were there within minutes. strange, surreal. i hugged the fifteen year olds (now not quite as innocent and unbitten as they had been earlier in the day), talked in low tones with patrons, started and abandoned other closing duties, felt odd. we all ended up going home leaving the place a mess, a little shaky and a lot thankful. it could've been so much worse...some money was lost, but noone was hurt.

life goes along smoothly for awhile, but then we are jolted by events out of our control, and it wakes us up in ways we hadn't known we were sleeping.