My Misadventure

Growing up, my mother was a stay-at-home mom. In order to have extra spending money, she passed out papers for USA Today. Early one morning, my mother was passing out papers at the Embassy Suites when a fully naked man chased her down a hallway. Somehow, my mom was able to run and pull her cart of newspapers into an elevator before he caught up to her. My mom was traumatized because she had no way to defend herself. After she told our family about the naked man, my half-brother gave her one of his pocket knives to carry with her in case of an emergency. From that day on, my mom started carrying the pocket knife in her handbag. A few weeks later, my aunt from Portland, Oregon came to visit my family in California. When it was time for her to take her flight home, my mother, eighty-six year old great-grandfather, sister, and I went to the LAX airport to see her off. Before we reached the metal detectors, my mother remembered that she had the pocket knife in her handbag. She walked up to the nearest guard and asked him if he would hold it for her. He said that he would, but when he opened up the pocket knife he realized that it was not an ordinary pocket knife but a double sided knife used by gang members. The guard called for back-up, and he told my mother that he would have to arrest her for possession of an illegal weapon. My mother tried to explain that it was not her knife and that she had no idea that it was an illegal weapon, but he would not listen to her. My mom, sister and I were crying, and my grandfather kept saying, “Please be nice to my granddaughter.” When the back-up came with the head of security, my mom explained her story. She said, “I had no idea that this is an illegal weapon. If I had known, I would never have asked the security guard to hold the knife for me. My children are little. If you take me to prison, I have nobody to take care of my girls.” The head of security took pity on my family. Thankfully, he let my mother off with a warning – a