Don't Take Candy from Strangers....or Me

A couple of days ago I took a good friend of mine to the airport.  On the way, she had a sort of scary cough attack.  Ever the quick thinker, I immediately offered her some water.  The conversation went about like this -

Her:  "Cough cough cough"
Me:  "Are you okay?  Here, let me give you some water."
Her:  (Nods yes)  "Cough.  Yes, some water would be good."
(A few seconds pass)
Her:  "Do you have water?"
Me:  "No, actually I do not have any."  (I said I was a quick thinker, not a quick logical thinker.)
Me Again: "But we can stop and get some."
Her:  "Cough cough."
Me Again (with a stroke of brilliance):  "But I do have candy."
**If you know me, you will know I always have candy.
Her:  "Yes, candy would be good. Cough cough"

So, I dug around in my purse to find some candy.  First, let me remind you that my purse is an absolute disaster at all times.  I think I may have mentioned that before.  It takes a combination of luck and patience to find anything at all in that purse, big or small.  And candy is small.  Second, let me remind you that I was driving.  That would not really be such an issue if I was driving down a straight road, laned by friendly little yellow and white solid and dashed lines, with the other modes of transportation around me being actual cars (as opposed to bikes, tractors, feet, and donkeys) and sane people behind the wheels of said cars.  That however was not the case.  Driving in Greece is always an adventure.  No matter how much experience I have driving and riding around here, I am always a little bit scared in the car.  And that fear is not unsubstantiated; I consider it healthy and more than reasonable.  So, one-handedly I groped blindly around in my purse for the feel of plastic wrappers. 

At last, I produced two pieces of candy and handed them to her.  She popped a piece in, she recovered, we continued to the airport, and she left.

After she was gone, I realized that her second piece of candy was on her seat.  Like she had put it under her and sat on it.  I picked it up, and this is what I saw:

(It was really hard to get a good picture of the little booger in all its gross glory due to that shiny plastic wrapper.  I don't know if it shows the utter disgustingness of it, but all the black spots are pure crodung.)


Who knows how long that thing had been in wallowing in the dark dirty depths of my bag.  Can you believe that is what I handed a poor strangled coughing woman?  And how cute (and sad) that she graciously accepted it, did not say anything about its nastiness, and quietly hid it under her.  She was also probably a bit scared and did not want me to remove my hands from the wheel again.  

Really, I should be embarrassed to admit all of that, much less display it, but it happened.  However, in the interest of education and fairness, maybe all of you should have a warning.  Please be healthily afraid aware of the road conditions in my fair country, any candy that I may offer you, and the risk that you take if you ever put your hand into the dark scariness of the venus fly trap that is my purse.