Ben Shanks for Unsplash

A Close Call

We were never told about the riff raff that lurked in the shadows. The scraggly characters waiting to do harm. We were raised to love everyone. So it was one day, I found myself at the local swimming hole, having a good ole time playing in the pool with my brother, when I was approached by a stranger.

Yes, thank the Lord we were taught about stranger danger, whether in school or by my parents, I don’t recall. Anyway, this dude tried to lure me to his car under the pretense of being mute. I was intrigued, my inner caregiver wanted to help, so I started to follow him. He gestured like he wanted to show me something, in fact, he mouthed the words.

As soon as I realized his intentions, at the same time I realized we were too far away for my brother to see me, and I pulled away and ran back to the pool. My brother is three years younger than me, yet I always felt like he was my protector, maybe because I’m so small. We enjoyed the rest of our time there that day and the incident was forgotten until I stupidly mentioned it to my mother one day weeks later. That was the end of my trips to the pool for a while.

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