I was driving through Carmel, California one afternoon when I came to an intersection where I had to stop at a light. A guy on the corner getting ready to cross was watching me the way a dog stares at you when you’re holding a biscuit in the air. I guessed he was waiting to see if I would stay stopped at the light before he crossed. Making eye contact with him, I jerked my head to the left, trying to tell him to go ahead and cross.

He read the head-jerk completely differently. He thought I’d said, Jump in! And he did. I was so stunned that the only thing I could think of to say was, “Where you going?”

“Just a couple blocks up the street, please,” he replied.

I kept driving until he indicated the corner where he wanted me to drop him off, pulled up there, and he popped out. “Thanks,” he said.

Stealth hitchhiker.