A while back, a dear friend of mine came to visit for a few days. We decided to take a day trip to another city and visit a world-famous museum there.

After we had spent 2-3 hours exploring the inside of the museum, we went outside to take in the beautiful gardens. At this point, we were both ready for a late lunch and decided to eat at a restaurant we had been to once before. We put the information into the GPS and were happy to see we were only about five miles away.

We found a shady place to park, maybe fifteen yards directly across from the restaurant. As we approached, there were people sitting along the outside at bistro tables. At the table closest to the entrance, sat two women who are probably close to our age. One had a locked-in stare, but the other rudely looked us “up and down” in such an exaggerated way it was impossible not to notice. We just walked by and ignored them.

Well, this friend of mine loves to dine alfresco. So, her first question to the hostess is, “can we sit outside?” The answer was yes, so she proceeded to grab two menus, and we turned around and exited right by the two women. And, now you are thinking, surely, they didn’t repeat their brazen behavior again, right?

Now, let me inject some needed information here. Neither my friend nor I were dressed inappropriately. I’m not as fancy as her but I’m not frump woman either. We were wearing clothing appropriate for our age and our destination. We were comfortably stylish given the weather and the fact we would be doing a great deal of walking.

So, as we are heading out the door to our table, my mind is racing. I’m angry at being treated so rudely but hoping it won’t happen again, and we will just let it go. Well, that didn’t happen. The one woman who was the most obnoxious between them, picked up right where she left off and again, began looking us up and down with that crappy little smirk on her face! So, what did I do? I leaned down and as jovially as I could muster, said, “Hi, how are you? How have you been?” Her expression immediately went from complete disapproval to deer in the headlights. She stuttered, “good, you?” I said, “doing great! Good to see you again!”

By this time, the hostess has seated my friend at our table which, of course, was right next to our “new” friends. I’m now back-to-back to the woman I’ve just sent reeling as I’m sure she was trying to figure out who I was and in fact, did I run in her social circles? Anyway, I hope that’s what was going on in her head.

It wasn’t too long before those two were finished with their meal and got up to leave. Because they were behind me, I didn’t have the sightline my friend had. A white Mercedes SUV was parked right in front of us and the beep indicating it was being unlocked sounded. We both figured it belonged to one of the women. But no one approached it to enter.

My friend began to laugh, and I asked what was happening. She said the woman whom I had “visited” with walked across the parking lot and tried to get into a white SUV, realized it wasn’t her car and had to walk back across the parking lot and get in the now unlocked Mercedes which was parked a few feet from her bistro table and right in front of us. Fancy that…

We probably shouldn’t have taken such joy and laughed as hard as we did but to have such immediate justice unfold was amazing! I hope she spent some time trying to figure out who I was but more importantly, I hope that woman, who is old enough to know better, thinks twice before she raises her nose and gives another woman the “once over.”

A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. Proverbs 15:1

I wanted to tell both of them what I thought about their behavior but I’m so thankful that I didn’t. I would have played right into their childish, middle school antics and I’m sure come out on the losing end. As it turned out, my friend and I had a good laugh, and who knows, that woman might still be wondering who in the world she was so rude to—fancy that…

C. Deni Johnson

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