I was driving home late last night (about 11:30 pm) from an outing that included a trip to my fav hot springs. It’s in kind of an isolated area, about 30 miles from Boise. It was one of those ‘dark and stormy nights’ that open the cheesiest novels.

I passed a small rafting outpost/store, and a man stood up with a large towel wrapped around him, presumably to keep warm. He stuck his thumb out. I drove on by.

You have to understand: this stretch of road is isolated. As in very little traffic that time of night. When I’m out in the woods, I normally carry protection, usually in the form of a handgun. Tonight, I had nothing, not even my pocketknife.

I drove on about a mile, thinking.

I turned around and went back.

I was thinking, “He looked kind of straggly, and we’re out in the middle of nowhere. Do I take a chance and give him a ride? What if it were me?” Then, “What if he tries something? I’ve got nothing to protect myself…”

I passed the outpost parking lot, saw this huddled mass in close to the road. Still there, he was. So I went to the next wide spot and turned around again, headed back in my original direction.

I slowed as I approached the parking lot. The man stood up and stuck his thumb out again. My headlights revealed what looked like a middle-aged guy, dressed in dirty clothes, with a long, scraggly beard. It was drizzling rain, and in the 40s.

I drove on past. I remember thinking, “Sorry, guy. I just can’t take the chance.”

So I left him there. Today, it still bothers me, and I don’t know if I made the right decision. There’s a certain fear in picking up strangers, especially in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere. Duh. But there’s also the helping-hand side of life.

So what kind of person does that make me? Mean for leaving him there, or smart for considering what could have happened?