Drawlloween Day 3: cryptid
I’ll never forget the first time I saw the Jersey Devil. It was late fall of 1992, I was driving home on the AC Expressway in the early evening from a class at UArts when my junky car broke down near exit 17. Only rich people had car phones back then so I had to walk to Wawa a couple miles away to call my stepdad to help me out. As I approached the Wawa I saw a sketchy figure hanging out by a trash can under the yellow lights, it was the 13th child himself, being ignored by customers coming and going. He was asking people for cigarettes or change. I quickly ran in the store to avoid eye contact with him but as I was getting my coffee and cellophane-wrapped pre-cream-cheesed bagel, I thought that I should give him a dollar or two since I was a kindred spirit in need of help. When I came out of Wawa I handed him some change and he said, “Thanks, Boss!” Then he climbed into the driver’s seat of an idling teal Geo Metro with Pearl Jam blaring on the radio and drove off. I waved to him and then realized I didn’t have any change left to call my stepdad. That’s what you get for helping cryptids.