First published – Oct 13 2007.
You rely a lot on luck as a young kid living on your own.
Sometimes you get lucky sometimes you dont.
A quick story about a time I got lucky.
Back again,
Time to take another trip down memory lane.
When you‟re a youngster living on your own you rely on luck to get by 50% of the time which is sometimes a good thing and sometimes a bad thing.
On this occasion it was a good thing.
I was 16 and sitting in Woden plaza at a place people used to call the „snakepit‟.
It was basically just seats at the bus interchange outside a video game arcade.
I was sitting there waiting for my mate to get back from up the street with some weed but he was taking his time.
I was pretty hungry and puffing on a smoke wondering as per usual how I was going to get some coin together for rent, food, bills and travel.
I know that sounds pretty lame but the Austudy payment I was receiving was about 160 a fortnight I think and my rent was 220 a week so that gives you some idea of the situation I was in.
I would hustle twenty and fifty dollar weed deals from my flat and at school to get a few extra bucks but at 16 I didn‟t quite have the know how to make any „real‟ money.
So Im sitting in Woden waiting and puffing on a cigga when another lad Ive seen around town comes walking up and asks me if he can borrow my bag?
Of course Im like what for?
He says come for a walk.
We walked up this ramp thing to a small coffee shop which I will leave un named but those who are from the area will know there was only one coffee shop at the top of the ramp.
This guy tells me he has broken in to this coffee shop and needs my sports bag to put the shops stereo in so he can make his get away.
I say no probs and walk up with him.
Once we get in he puts the stereo in the sports bag and starts filling plastic bags with chocolates.
Im thinking stuff the mars bars where‟s the cash??
I asked him how much cash he has found and he says none!
So I start ransacking the cupboards and I find a money bag which I grab and as I do so it jingles as it is full of change and the dude who I came with comes walking over to see whats up.
Just before he comes round the corner of the counter to where Im crouching I look in the bag and see a wad of cash on top of the change so I put it down my pants right away.
I show him what‟s now inside the bag and then we leave.
We decide to meet up at a local weed dealers place in half an hour and we split up both heading different directions in to the Woden bus interchange.
We only got about maybe ten meters apart max when cops began filtering in to the interchange from the attached local cop shop.
I figured the store must have had some sort of silent alarm or some shit that had gone off.
Straight away two cops head toward the guy I had gone in the shop with and begin questioning him, most likely because he looks like he is moving house with my sports bag and four or five plastic bags full of crap.
At the same time as this my mate with the weed walks up to me and says hello just as two coppers start walking in our direction.
The only thing I have is the money but there is like $200 of it in change so every step I take is going CHING CHING CHING…
I give my mate the look that means just keep moving but he can see the pigs so he just falls in to stride with me as we say hello.
It was only a few more metres to the taxi rank and we headed to it with the cops in toe.
The cops hadn‟t said anything to us but I was sure they could hear the change rattling in my pocket.
Just as I reached out and opened the cab door I heard the coppers voice…”Excuse me mate”
My adrenaline rose sharply but I kept a cool exterior and casually turned around as I opened the cab door.
“What is it mate”
My mate that was with me also turned around and as he had a bag the coppers focused more attention on him then me requesting he open the bag for inspection.
He showed them inside the bag and that seemed to satisfy them enough and they headed back toward the bus interchange to help look for these “criminals”.
We got dropped at my mums ex boyfriends place and to his surprise I payed him the money I owed him and scored some weed at the same time.
Me and the boys lived well for a few days and that was that.
Back soon.