More Harassment

Ah, rural living! You never know what will happen next.

I was in the pasture scraping the shedding blade across Melody when Mr. Redneck drove past. I didn’t have my watch on, but I know it was between 6 and 7 p.m. because I’d watched some of the news before I went out to feed the critters. I’d tossed the ball for Maggie longer than I wanted to, and then I scraped shedding hair off Cupcake and Melody.

I was headed back to the house when John came out to his shop (which adjoins the horse shed and kennel). At that time, Mr. RN drove back. Where had he gone for less than five minutes? Gee, you don’t think he might have been checking on us, do you?

After I had rounded up the cats, got them in, and checked my email, John came in to tell me about the “confrontation.” John was returning from checking our neighbor’s property and dog (as our neighbor had asked him to do) and was walking in our yard midway between the upper and lower driveway, and headed back to his shop. Mr. RN came walking up the road, whipped out an object, pushed it toward John's face, and yelled “Gotcha!” John, surprised, instinctively put his hand up. He didn't know if Mr. RN was about to hit him in the face or what. When John realized that the object pushed toward his face was a cameraphone and Mr. Redneck was taking his picture, John continued walking toward his shop, and Mr. RN continued walking to the old depot at the corner (which his brother owns and where the folding chairs are). He walked around the depot (which faces our upper driveway) for a bit.

(This is not the first time, Mr. RN has snapped pictures. Only a few days earlier—about 9 last Saturday morning—Mr. RN was walking along the road while John was mowing along the roadway. Mr. RN pulled out his phone and snapped John’s picture then. Our neighbor and his hired man happened to notice as they drove down the road and asked John what Mr. RN was doing. Mr. RN was snapping pictures of both John and me the morning after John was found not guilty of mr. RN's false warrants last fall.)

Mr. RN must have called his son from the depot, because within minutes son drove up in his little lavender truck. Mr. RN got in with his son who turned his little truck around, drove a couple hundred feet to the edge of our pines where John sat in the glider, and stopped. Mr. RN and son stared at John for a while. Then the son challenged John to come out to the road: “You wanna swat, come on out here!” As the son continued mouthing off, Mr. RN said he was going to call the sheriff: “The sheriff’s gonna come to your house and charge you with assault!”

John, being considerably more intelligent than either Mr. RN or son, didn’t answer the challenge and kept sitting in his glider under the pines. Mr. RN and son sat parked in the driveway across the road and waited for about five minutes before going home. I guess they got bored that John wasn’t going to respond to their intimidation.

After they left, John came in the house, announced, “I just had a confrontation,” and filled me in on the details. Then he called the sheriff and explained what had just happened.

We went back outside to finish up some of the barn work—mainly, refilling the water tubs—and waited for the deputy to arrive. It was after dark when we saw the car go past. First he went down the road to Mr. RN’s house (Mr. RN had obviously called, too) and about twenty minutes later, came to see us.

John told Officer Mayo what happened—essentially when someone sticks a cameraphone in your face and yells, “Gotcha!” you’re going to throw your hand up to protect yourself.

So, it looks like Mr. RN & son, frightened of the assault that didn’t happen as they harassed and challenged my husband, will probably file a warrant. In fact, as I typed this, a very noisy little truck went past. Since the little lavender Toyota has an unusually noisy muffler, I assume father and son were en route to the magistrate’s office. (How nice that father and son do things together!)

Stay tuned, gentle blog readers, for the next installment.