I Wouldn’t Be Surprised
My wife and I had to travel to San Antonio for my PRK/LASEK surgery. When we arrived in town, we found out our initial hotel plans fell through, and we had to find a last-minute motel to stay at. We get everything situated around noon and get our key for a second-floor room.
We load back into our car and drive to the other side of the motel to park our car near our room and start unloading our luggage. As we were unloading our car with our two suitcases and a couple of backpacks, my wife and I noticed a disheveled man walking parallel to the motel.
He turns towards us and starts approaching us. In our mind, we figured he was just going to ask for cash and go on his way. I mean, the majority of my encounters with homeless and/or drug users are that, but we’re still on guard because we don’t know this area.
After he approached us, he asked if we needed help unloading our stuff. He has a 40oz in one hand and another 40oz halfway out of his cargo pocket, and at this point, I can smell the booze coming off of him. We politely tell him no and that we don’t need help as it’s only a couple of things.
He stumbles to put his opened 40oz on the brick ledge next to us and states he would like to help us and it’s the least he can do. He firmly takes my suitcase out of my hand and starts to introduce himself as, “Reuben.”
I’m obviously on guard here, I mean the man has my suitcase in his hand and I don’t even know him. He starts walking to the stairs, continuing his life story. He seems pretty harmless, but still gives my wife and me those vibes.
I explained to him that I don’t have cash on hand and that I wouldn’t be able to tip him for his generosity. Reuben says that it’s fine, and again, this is the least he could do. At this point, he’s following my wife and me on the outside balcony to our room. Again, my bells are ringing and so are my wife’s.
I restate that I don’t have cash. My wife hurries into the room and I’m with Reuben with my stuff. He hands me my stuff and I put it in the room right behind the door. I’m starting to close the door, my thigh pressed against it as well as my wife.
As I’m thanking him for his help, he extends his hand out in the form of expecting a payment. I again tell him that we don’t have the cash to tip him.
In an instant, Reubens’ facial expression underwent a radical transformation: it changed from an “I’m glad to help you” happy face to an, “I will hurt you and your wife and won’t think twice about it”-soulless look.
My hand is on my knife and at this point, I am pushing the door shut, but before I shut it, he utters a bone-chilling warning, “You better keep your windows and doors locked.” I slammed and immediately locked the door and ensured the windows were in fact locked.
We moved some of the furniture in front of the door and windows in a way to barricade them and kept them there for the remainder of our stay when we were in the room and finally notified the front desk of him.
Even returning to the room, we would look under the bed and in the bathroom for him in case he broke in.
Each time we left the room for my medical appointments, we would always be on the lookout for Reuben and even to the point of parking in different spots and taking different ways to our room so we wouldn’t bump into him again.
This was 4-5 years ago and my wife and I still get shivers down our spine by the way he just changed so suddenly and uttered those words to us.
Hypothetically, if someone would share a San Antonio news report of a man named Reuben murdering someone since then, I wouldn’t be surprised. Story credit: Reddit / Finally_Smiled